Lost but not forgotten
by Kleiser
Summary: Three weeks after Naruto came back to Konoha with Tsunade, he's assigned a mission to escort a VIP client to safety during which Naruto goes missing after an attack, his life is turned upside down when a foreign ninja recruits him to finish the assassination of the fourth Mizukage, along the way he will uncover dark secrets buried deep within the shadows of the Land of Water.
1. The Mission

The Mission

Naruto was running through the village towards the Hokage's office, ever since the destruction of Konoha by Suna and Oto, team seven was always assigned to fetch and run missions. The one mission that was a highlight was when Naruto and Jiraiya were sent to fetch Tsunade, ever since he returned with Tsunade he has only been on delivery missions.

But not today, today was going to be different; even if he had to storm into Tsunade's office and demand a more challenging mission!

When Naruto and the rest of team seven assembled inside the Hokage's office Tsunade took a breath in and was about to speak, but was interrupted "come on grandma Tsunade, why don't you ever give us challenging missions I thought I proved how strong I was when I helped defeat Orochimaru and…"

By this point Tsunade's attitude was quickly deteriorating, just as Naruto was about to finish Tsunade yelled "Will you shut up you annoying brat I wasn't going to give you anything like that, now if you keep this behavior up I'll have you chasing dogs and cats for the rest of your shinobi career!"

Naruto thought about it for a minute then shuddered deeply before he quieted down. Tsunade smiled, as she turned her chair around to look out the window said, "Now listen up everyone!" As she turned around to face them "your mission is to escort a high paying client named Daisuke to the border between the land of fire and the land of rain."

"Now let me make this clear, there is no room for any errors in this mission; Daisuke is a high valued client, your mission objective starts here in the land of fire and ends at the border of the land of River," Tsunade said as she turned back around.

Kakashi asked, "What makes Daisuke a VIP if we knew we could better plan for what we might be up against."

"Daisuke became the boss of several gold mining operations, throughout the elemental nations after the third ninja war," Tsunade replied as she closed her eyes and went into thought.

Tsunade opened her eyes and commanded "Now you are all to protect him from bandit attacks, or assassination attempts on his life. Now go you will find him waiting at the north gate."

They all made it to the north gate within five minutes to see a man with short dark hair, and a goatee; who was leaning against the wall. When they got there the man said, "Are you the ones assigned to protect me?" Kakashi simply nodded before Daisuke simply said, "Pleasure to make your acquaintance everyone, I am Daisuke; I am optimistic you will do well as my bodyguards."

After that they immediately headed out towards the land of rain; two hours into the trip Sakura asked,

" While we were being briefed on our mission lady Tsunade said we would need to protect you from any assassination attempts on your life, but who would want to assassinate you just for owning a few goldmines?"

Daisuke looked at Sakura and replied, "It is not just because I own several gold mines, that in of itself isn't enough to make me want to higher shinobi as guards;I recently had to cut several business partners out of the operation, most of them were getting far too greedy; they were thinking of ways to increase the profits and cut the payment that our workers from other nations receive."

Daisuke started walking forward he looked back and said in a solemn voice, "Also, it is not just a small amount of gold mines, in each of the five great nations I own at least two gold mines; not to mention they were spoils of war, which makes me a high valued target for kidnapping or assassination."

*Two days later, near the border*

It was early morning, and Sasuke was standing on top of a tree; he was overlooking a large gorge if his expression indicated anything it was that he was bored.

"Its length stretches further than my eye can see, and the length of the gorge seems to be fifty yards." He said to everyone over the intercom, seconds later there was a response from Kakashi, "Roger, do you see if there is any way we can make it across the gorge?"

"There is a single bridge in the middle of the gorge, There is no point in trying to carry him down the gorge; at the bottom, there is a river; its current is too strong for us to walk across."

Naruto was standing at the base of the tree, his focus was aimed towards the camp, he thought to himself "Ugh, why did grandma Tsunade lie about the difficulty of this mission; I thought it was a C class." Naruto looked at Kakashi and yelled,

"Hey, Kakashi-sensei." Kakashi glanced away from his book for a moment to look at Naruto "Hmm, what is it Naruto?" Kakashi replied lazily.

"When are we going to be over with this mission it has been too easy the entire trip," Naruto said with a voice that held frustration.

Daisuke was walking behind Kakashi and said, "Well once we make it to the middle of the bridge your job is officially over and we should come across the Ninja from river country who will be able to escort me the rest of the way."

Sakura walked over to Naruto, her attitude and the tone of her voice showed how irritated she was "Naruto for the hundredth time, we will make it to the bridge by the end of today." Naruto was about to reply but Sakura cut him off "

Honestly, why are you always so impatient, you should be more like Sasuke; calm, cool, and collected. "

Naruto looked over at Sasuke, but he only grunted at Naruto's stares and continued on with his day; on the outside, it would seem like he didn't care either way how the mission was going; but on the inside, he was saying

"Naruto does have a point; this mission is way too boring and uneventful for being ranked at C class."

The group continued their trek for two hours, they were going along the main road, when the group was half a mile away from the bridge. Night time was starting to set in leaving the surrounding foliage-shrouded in shadows, the bridge and the road, however, were being illuminated by the moonlight.

Kakashi raised his hand "We stop here." Was all Kakashi said before he started moving off the trail into the forest.

Naruto openly showed his annoyance "Sensei why are we taking a detour; we are almost at our destination!" Naruto growled as he followed behind Sasuke. When they were t the edge of the forest staring at the bridge Kakashi stopped abruptly "Alright we will rest here for now, and look for any signs of an ambush."

Naruto had almost bumped into Sasuke when that happened he said, "Watch where you're going Sasuke."

Sasuke only grunted and said, "Whatever loser, just make sure you don't get us killed with that carelessness."

Sakura was silently observing their fight "Naruto would you stop fighting with Sasuke you started the whole thing."

Naruto was about to say something but was interrupted when Kakashi abruptly said, "Alright everyone this is the plan."

They all stared intently at him as he begun "Now the four of you are going to stay hidden in the forest; Naruto I need you to make two shadow clones and transform them into Daisuke and me." He took a moment to make sure Naruto was listening.

when Naruto nodded his head Kakashi said, "These two clones are going to be the ones performing the handoff; if the rain ninja turns out to be disguised assassins and kill the clones we will know who the enemies are, and Daisuke will be able to stay out of harm's way."

Kakashi burrowed into the grounds as Naruto's shadow clones transformed, the clones moved out of the underbrush and towards the bridge. Naruto and the others were observing intently, as the clones and rain ninja slowly made their way to each other; until both groups finally met up in the middle of the bridge

One of the ninjas broke the silence "Daisuke I presume?" Daisuke's clone stepped forward his face filled with delight "I am" Daisuke replied. Well, this is where we part ways, maybe the trip into river country will be as easy as it was here. I'll be at my destination in no time and can continue the business" Daisuke said eagerly, as he followed behind the shinobi to the other side of the bridge.

As Daisuke was walking away, Sasuke and Naruto were simultaneously thinking "This entire mission was boring; I wish there would have been at least one attempt on his life I would have gotten to fight something." The outcome of this mission clearly annoyed the two of them.

Just as the Kakashi clone was about to turn around it was stabbed and dispelled. Suddenly someone standing right where the clone was. Daisuke suddenly turned around in shock and fear; the two ninjas in front of him didn't seem surprised, one turned around and said, "Took you long enough." Before he ran up to Daisuke and promptly slammed the back of his kunai into Daisuke's head. Daisuke fell to the ground limp as he hit the ground he dispelled in a puff of smoke. The assassins at first a little shocked from the decoy recovered and headed closer towards Naruto and the group.

Naruto was watching them come closer 'Alright time to test how far I have come with my training!" he said joyfully, Sakura punched his head

"you idiot our goal isn't to engage these ninjas in combat it is to draw them away" She growled, as she started dragging Naruto the other way.

As she was doing so "Running away isn't an option today." Kakashi said as he was jumping out from the earth. Everyone gave Kakashi a puzzled look before he said, "I was trying to get information on who our enemies were but they have a sensory ninja."

"Well, then what's the plan?" Naruto asked as he was staring at the ninja enter the forest. Kakashi looked at Naruto before he pointed to the last ninja to enter the forest. "We need to pick them off one at a time, otherwise the four of you will not have very good survival chances."

"Okay everyone I need you to head north along the forest line when you draw the attention of an assailant try to lure them away and I'll take care of the rest."

Kakashi jumped into the trees and hid his presence. Moments later a ninja jumped in the middle of them and yelled "Earth Style Seismic Shock." The earth started rumbling for a second before it started to split open, Naruto nearly fell in but was caught by Sasuke. Just as he was doing the hand seals for another Jutsu, Kakashi jumped down and stabbed him in the neck. Though Kakashi got the kill the man managed to get off a Jutsu that revealed their location.

Kakashi looked at the dead ninja "Keep moving north!" he commanded, as he jumped back into the trees.

The group continued north, while on route Kakashi had to dispatch two more assailants; after they came across the second one Kakashi was locked into a battle with him as the group had to continue forward. As they went onwards the mountain edge started to slowly decline until they were ground level with the ravine. The group was panting a bit Sasuke looked around "We can only stay here for a minute to rest." Sasuke said. Just as they were about to move out enemy ninja surrounded them. The ninjas began shifting their positions readying themselves to kill team seven if they showed any signs of weakness or openings, as Sasuke Naruto and Sakura were trying to discern which one would strike first. one of the ninjas in the front noticed a blind spot she pulled out several shurikens from a pouch on her left side and threw them towards Daisuke.

Kakashi was finally able to catch up to the group to notice the attack aimed at Daisuke and jumped forward blocking the shuriken with a mud wall, while the rest of the squad adjusted their positions around Daisuke to cover most of their blind spots.

Within moments of assuming defensive positions they were surrounded, one of the ninjas stepped forward and said, "Hand over Daisuke and we will allow you to leave with your lives." Naruto was still excited that the mission wouldn't end without an exciting fight, Naruto yelled, "As if we would hand him over to a bunch of petty thieves and murderers like you!"

Kakashi gave a glance back to Daisuke and said, "When you have a chance to slip out run northeast for two miles and you will reach a border patrols camp when you do send assistance." Daisuke nodded, he decided he would stay put for now, as he was in the safest place currently.

The Rain ninja began to slowly push the group close to the cliff edge Kakashi decided to act and gain some fighting room. He said, "Earth Style Rockslide Jutsu." Large earth spikes started shooting out of the ground, all the enemy ninja were forced to jump back.

Team seven could advance forward and avert being pushed off the cliff. Two ninjas were in front of Kakashi while one member moved to block Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke's escape route.

The ninja who was directly in front of Kakashi grinned "I was hoping you all would have more fight in you." He said before shifting his position so that his legs were slightly bent and a kunai in his right hand readied, he yelled, "Kill them all, we'll handle the jonin you three should be able to handle some genin."

The ninja who was fighting Kakashi were both wielding kunai, the one in front just dropped to the ground as a giant fireball flew past him aimed towards the group. Kakashi pulled his headband off his eye to reveal his Sharingan, as the fireball was nearing closer he completed the hand seals and said, "Water style, water wall Jutsu." Water from the ravine below was pulled up in a giant sheet of water which fell to the ground soon after the fireball hit it, causing the mist to spread across the ravine. The assassin jumped towards Kakashi Swinging his kunai in an upward arc, aimed at slicing his jugular, Kakashi blocked the attack with his kunai and attempted to kick him in the face. The ninja blocked his kick and tried to punch Kakashi's face with his free hand Kakashi noticing his attack coming blocked with the other hand. The ninja jumped back and growled, "Kakashi the copy-cat Ninja, I thought I recognized you from somewhere." Seconds later a man began doing hand seals Kakashi noticed this and copied his movements just as the ninja finished his hand seals and shot a fireball at team seven Kakashi fired his own fireball, the two fireballs collided causing an explosion which blew all the mist away and caused smoke to rise off the bridge for a few minutes. The two ninja took the time to conceal themselves inside the smoke, seconds later the two jumped out of the smoke and attempted to catch him off guard, one went for his left aiming to stab Kakashi in the heart while the other went for his right side trying to stab him in the floater's rib.

They both made contact and hit Kakashi at the intended spot, they both jumped back and smiled as Kakashi fell to the floor, their smiles were short-lived as Kakashi exploded into smoke and turned into a log, Kakashi instantly appeared behind the leader and attempted to cut his throat before he could the other man shouted, "Fire style, Phoenix flower Jutsu." The fireballs were headed towards Daisuke, Kakashi stopped his assault and used the body flicker in front of Daisuke and said, "Earth style, Earth wall Jutsu!" The earth wall did its job of holding against the fireballs but would have been destroyed had the fireballs been more powerful.

Sasuke was having to deal with a large man who wielded a staff, Sasuke was unable to get anywhere close to the man, as he was doing everything in his power to make sure Sasuke didn't get close enough to land a blow. They were exchanging blows constantly trying to get through the other's defenses. Sasuke ducked under a strike meant for his neck and fired off a Fireball that would have nailed him on target if it wasn't for him using a substitution. The man attempted to hit Sasuke in the back of the head, but Sasuke ducked under it, Sasuke noticing the man was closer than he normally was attempted to kick the man in the stomach but the man used his staff to propel himself backward's before Sasuke could land his blow. The ninja pulled out three bombs and threw them towards Sasuke, Sasuke was about to dodge them but they began rolling past him towards Daisuke. Sasuke noticed this and jumped back kicking several of them off into the river, the one that didn't get kicked away suddenly exploded in a cloud of smoke. Sasuke being unable to see or hear his opponent at this point closed his eyes and began focusing for any disturbance that he could hear.

All was quiet except for the battles that were raging on with his teammates he could hear the man moving past him towards Daisuke "Shit!" Was all Sasuke thought as he moved towards Daisuke before he could the man turned around and hit Sasuke in the stomach with his staff launching him further away. He ran towards Sasuke aiming to hit him in the head, he had almost hit his mark until Sasuke blocked the staff with his two arms. The man was about to kick him but another Sasuke appeared behind him, the man ignored it at first until that Sasuke stabbed him in the arm causing him to groan in pain. The ninja turned around to dispatch the clone but when he did he found it was nowhere to be found, nor was his arm wounded anymore. He turned around and yelled "Shit!" as he was kicked in the face and lost grip of his staff, Sasuke picked up the staff and threw it off the ledge of the bridge and pulled out a kunai, the ninja did the same and they began a battle of close quarters combat.

Sakura was fighting a woman who used a katana, the two of them were standing on the river facing each other. Sakura was looking around trying to find anything she could use to win the fight, Sakura attempted to use a genjutsu on the woman, Sakura had a slight smile on her face as it seemed like the woman was affected by the genjutsu. Sakura ran up to her and kicked her head attempting to knock her into the water, just as she made contact, her body turned into a puddle of water. "Nice try but you're going to have to do better than that!" She exclaimed, just before she rushed towards Sakura kicking her backward's. Sakura was knocked onto her back several feet away she tried to get up only to realize the woman was behind her and about to cut her in half.

Sakura attempted to move out of the way but the woman brought her sword down cutting Sakura's head off, just as Sakura's head hit the floor it exploded in a cloud of smoke and turned into the remains of a log. Sakura came up behind her and punched her in the back with her right hand while bringing her left around to stab her in the back. The woman was unable to block both attacks or get away in time so she settled for taking the punch, she was sent three feet forwards before flipping back up and throwing shuriken at Sakura, Sakura leaped out of the way just to find the woman below her and ready to skewer her with the katana. The ninja had a triumphant smile as the sword pierced Sakura's Abdomen, her smile was short lived as Sakura substituted for another log, the woman's sword was lodged in the log as Sakura came from above ready to stab her through the skull. The woman rolled out of the way and kicked Sakura in the chest launching her onto her back. "If all you can do is substitute then this fight has already been settled, little girl." The ninja said with a confident smile. Sakura knew she could not win against this woman with just Taijutsu alone and her skills in ninjutsu were not that great either. She needed to keep her busy and hope that someone would finish their opponent off and assist her. She summoned several clones and tried to get behind her opponent and kill her. The woman knew she could not just attack each clone individually, next thing Sakura knew was the ninja roared out "Fire Style, Fire Ball Jutsu." The flame engulfed all the clones and knocking Sakura back causing burns to show up across her body. Sakura groaned from the pain and stood up, she began looking around for anything she could use to give her the advantage. The ninja didn't allow her to have a moment longer of rest as she continued the assault.

Naruto had gotten the worst matchup out of everyone, the woman he was fighting used a lot of ninjutsu that was supported by her insanely high chakra reserves, and her skill with taijutsu was better than Rock lee's. Naruto weaved the seals for shadow clone Jutsu, just as his clones were summoned the woman yelled, "Oh no you don't water style water whip Jutsu." Just as the clones began rushing her she flung the whip around lashing all the clones destroying several on contact but throwing the rest of them off into the water. Naruto yelled "Shadow clone Jutsu again throwing more of them after her. She used her whip to do the same thin over again "Feel like giving up yet… Boy?" she taunted as the last of Naruto's clones were destroyed. "If all they teach you at the academy is shadow clones then you can't hope to beat me within a thousand years, maybe if you apologize now I'll let you live as my pet." She taunted. Naruto gritted his teeth and yelled, "No way am I giving up to you, that goes against my Ninja way to never give up!" Naruto rushed at her, he attempted to throw a kick at her which she easily blocked with her arms, she did a backflip and threw a kunai at his chest which he leaned backwards to dodge by the time he got back up she was In front of him again and landed a punch to his stomach shoving him to the ground she was about to land a punch on his jaw when Naruto launched his legs up kicking her in the chin launching her backwards the ninja caught herself on her hands and did a back flip landing into a crouched position staring at Naruto with anger "Brat you are going to pay for that." She said as the killing intent was leaking out of her.

Naruto was not affected by this at all instead he only readied himself, seconds later Naruto yelled "Shadow clone Jutsu." When he was finished with the Jutsu fifty clones appeared and began charging at the woman, after a few seconds she smirked and said, "You never learn do you boy?" she started weaving the hand signs and yelled "Fire style Fire Bombardment Jutsu." Suddenly she started spitting large fireballs out of her mouth, at first it would seem like a normal fireball Jutsu but inspecting it closer would reveal that it looked more solid than a normal fireball. When the fireballs hit the ground, they exploded into a fiery mass that destroyed all the clones in her path. She looked down onto the ground where Naruto was standing he was coughing violently and laughing. "What's so funny has the damage started to affect your cognitive function?" She snarled. Naruto slowly stood up and said, "Remember this day as the time I beat you." Not a moment later and clones began to jump out from the river, they caught her off guard and managed to hold her down, seconds later a yell was heard as a Naruto holding a Rasengan was coming closer to the ninja just as the clone made contact he yelled "Rasengan." The orb hit her center of mass launching her across the river,

The ninja who was using Ninjutsu on Kakashi got distracted for a second as his teammate came flying past him overhead. The distraction was enough to cause him to lose focus of Kakashi who threw a shuriken at him, he was hit in the throat by the shuriken and soon collapsed from lack of oxygen and blood loss. The other one he was fighting was looking at the situation at hand, they were now outnumbered by one and they were slowly losing ground. He gritted his teeth his teeth in frustration and said, "This is pathetic we are losing to one jonin and a bunch of genins," just as he said that he had to block a kick from Kakashi which knocked him back a foot before he flipped backwards and threw shuriken at Kakashi hoping to hit him, but to no avail. Kakashi rushed forward trying to slice his chest but the man blocked it with his own Kunai, they locked eyes for a second which was all Kakashi needed before he stuck him under a genjutsu the man fell to the floor and began twitching every few seconds.

Sasuke was handling his opponent expertly, he noticed the man was barely using any ninjutsu or genjutsu after he lost his staff he was skilled in taijutsu but Sasuke's was better and more refined. The man knew he didn't stand a chance against Sasuke who was outclassing him in taijutsu he began thinking to himself "Shit this kid is good at taijutsu and everyone else seems to be losing their fights, I need to figure a way to escape this cluster fuck." The man threw down some smoke bombs which covered half the bridge. He began making his way to the mountain face on rain country's side where he would climb up and try to escape. Just as he began to move up the mountain, he found that his body was unable to move it was trapped in ninja wire. The smoke began to clear, when it did he saw that Sasuke was holding a long piece of ninja wire that was wrapped around him and one of the rocks hanging overhead. He knew he was beaten but he would be damned if he got captured, the man tried to fight out of the wire but found himself unable to. Sasuke smirked at him "Can't escape, now can you?" he said as he walked over and hit him in the back of the head.

Sakura was barely holding up the ninja was outclassing her, she could not fight the woman in taijutsu she was no match for her swift strikes. Just as she was rushing forward she put out a simple genjutsu that managed to make her stop for several seconds before she released it, after she did she noticed Sakura wasn't in front or behind him. She looked up but saw nothing, the next thing she knew a kunai was lodged into her thigh. She tried to swipe at Sakura with her kunai but Sakura jumped back before she could hit her, the ninja groaned from the pain before attempting to stand up. When she stood fully upright she was hit with a punch to the abdomen that sent her onto her back.

The last assassin looked around her, all her team was either dead or incapacitated. She looked around and noticed Sakura dropped her guard for a second. She acted on it and slipped behind Sakura holding a knife to her throat.

She yelled, "Nobody move or the girl dies!" Everyone stopped and stared at her, the ninja started moving towards the path that led to the bridge. The rest of team seven followed her as she made her way up the dirt path.

Finally, the woman stopped when she was on the bridge, she looked at Kakashi "Bring me Daisuke and you can have your genin back." She growled, as Kakashi stared into the fearful eyes of Sakura, he sighed for a moment before saying, "Naruto go get Daisuke from the border patrol camp." Naruto was about to interject but Kakashi yelled "Now!" Naruto was turning around, as he did Sakura managed to squeeze the woman's injured thigh causing her to drop the knife and release her hold on Sakura enough for her to escape her grasps.

The three genin and one Jonin stood before the woman who was holding Sakura hostage. she was the only one conscious currently and they needed answers for why they were attacked. The ninja, "Fucking hell we had one job one bloody job, and that was to kill the mark yet we lost to a bunch of genins." She looked at all of them and laughed manically before she set her hands up in a tiger seal. Everyone went wide eyed when explosions started going off all over the bridge, Kakashi yelled at everybody to get off the bridge, they all began running towards Konoha's side of the bridge. Naruto was running with all his might, he knew he was durable and did not die as easy as other people, but he did not want to chance it with explosions. He was just about to make it off the bridge when he noticed that Sakura was falling behind, the injuries she had sustained from the previous fights had caught up to her. He ran back towards her and grabbed her hand, he was pulling her along trying to go as fast as he could. He realized the explosions were coming closer, in a final effort to save her; Naruto threw Sakura towards Kakashi who caught her in his arms. Naruto began running as fast as he could; but just as he was ten feet away from getting off the bridge an explosion happened just below him, engulfing him in flames and launching him off the bridge. The last thing Naruto did as he plummeted down was smile at his last good deed.

Everyone was shocked by what had just happened Sakura screamed out "Naruto!" Sakura's scream fell on deaf ears, she began crying. Kakashi after watching Naruto get blown up was bombarded with memories of the past and how Obito had sacrificed his life as well. Kakashi looked around before he said "Summoning Jutsu!" In a puff of smoke, his hounds appeared. Sasuke's was left stunned at his friend and rival being blown up.

* * *

This is my first fan fiction, leave a review on how I did.


	2. the Search

The Search

A small dog along with several others appeared out of the smoke, the small one stepped forward he was wearing a navy blue vest and a Konoha forehead protector. The small dog looked up at Kakashi and said,

"Yo Kakashi, what's up?"

Kakashi looked down at the dog "Pakkun I need you all to search the surrounding area for Naruto; we were fighting enemy ninja and they rigged the bridge to explode, Naruto was caught in the explosion."

The dog named Pakkun looked at Kakashi shock clearly written on his face "Say no more we will search for him when do you need us to report back?"

"Meet us back here within three hours, that should be enough time for me to patch these two up and recover, "Kakashi replied while signaling for the rest of his squad to follow.

"Roger," Pakkun replied before he walked over to the other dogs, moments later they all took up different directions and went off.

Daisuke looked around at the damage done to the bridge "Well I guess I will need to return to Konoha for now."

"I'll need to get a new group to escort me the rest of the way." He said while looking at the collapsed bridge.

Sakura walked over to Kakashi, "Kakashi-Sensei." She asked,

"What is it?" Kakashi replied.

Sakura began looking over to the bridge and said,

"Is there any way we can all go out and help look for Naruto, rather than sitting here and doing nothing." Kakashi looked at Sakura before sighing

"Look It's not because I don't want to let either of you search for him; it's just that I can't let you or Sasuke go, both of you were heavily injured because of that fight, if there are any more assailants out there you two would be easy to take down."

Sakura turned around and lowered her head to silently cry, as she started pacing around.

As the group was waiting for any word on Naruto, Kakashi said,

Sakura started setting up camp and Sasuke you start patrolling the edges of camp!"

Sasuke looked over at Kakashi and glared "And what are you going to do?" Sasuke retorted, Kakashi looked back at Sasuke and did what could be taken as a smile.

"Me, well I am going to be writing a situation report; that will be asking for immediate assistance on searching for Naruto if Pakkun and the others come back empty, that's what I'll be doing, Sasuke" Kakashi replied.

*Three hours later*

Pakkun and the rest of the hounds jumped into camp; they walked over to Kakashi.

"We followed his scent downstream, but were only able to find his headband and the body of a woman; who we assume was one of your assailants, she died of asphyxiation." Pakkun briskly said

Seconds later a large black pit bull walked up from the back and dropped a badly damaged forehead protector onto the ground in front of the group.

Sasuke looked at Pakkun and said, "Death by asphyxiation isn't uncommon for someone who was under water." Pakkun looked up at Sasuke

"Yeah except for the fact that she was strangled by ninja wire," Pakkun replied, this fact shocked the three ninjas.

Pakkun said, "When we investigated the corpse and the surrounding area, it seems like the woman was alive when she made it there; and from what we could discern she was fighting with someone, as the surrounding area was damaged from fire and earth Jutsu's being used."

The whole group was a little surprised by this, Sakura spoke up "What does the fight have to do with Naruto though?"

"we don't know, what we do know for one thing is there was a puddle of blood that we assume was Naruto's; but the reason two ninjas were fighting near him is a mystery," Pakkun replied

Another dog walked up to Kakashi and said, "I searched a little bit into rain country but when I got there I found several dead shinobi piled into a mound seems like your assailants were not from rain country in the first place."

"I had a suspicion of that." Kakashi thought as he turned his attention back towards the hounds

Kakashi asked, "Alright thank you, Pakkun can you deliver this message to Tsunade."

Sasuke and Sakura began asking several of the hounds what they found, none of them found any traces of Naruto other than where the unknown battle took place.

Kakashi yelled out "Alright everyone we are going to have to head back to Konoha without Naruto." Sasuke and Sakura went wide eyed while Daisuke was indifferent. Sakura yelled

"We can't just leave him out here you saw the blast he was caught in!"

"Look I understand how it feels to lose a comrade, it makes you feel powerless and insignificant; but right now, we need to escort Daisuke back to safety," Kakashi replied,

Sakura glared at Kakashi for a moment before she snapped "How could you understand how I feel?" Finally, she started yelling,

"Naruto sacrificed his life for me because I was too weak to watch over myself; you know nothing of how I am feeling, I might as well have been the one to kill him!"

"Look Sakura don't assume I know nothing of what you are going through; I have lost a lot of friends during the last great war many of them I had to watch die, where." Kakashi snapped.

"The way I see things an unknown ninja has taken possession of Naruto for unknown reasons, we do not know if he is dead or alive nor do we have the manpower or a sensory ninja to initiate a proper search." Kakashi sorrowfully said.

Pakkun could you deliver the message to Tsunade and get her to get assign some units to search for Naruto." Pakkun nodded and started running as fast as he could, moments later all the hounds disappeared in a puff of smoke leaving the remaining members of team seven mortified by the death of Naruto and Kakashi's decision to go back without him. Kakashi finally decided to break the silence

"We need to get going both of you, I know how much it hurts to lose a comrade right in front of you; constantly replaying the events that led up to his death over and over, but we need to think of how Naruto would want us to carry on."

Sakura with tears still in her eyes nodded and got up. She looked over at Sasuke who was walking over to the ledge where the bridge once stood when he made it he was just staring at the spot where Naruto was killed at, just as she was about to say something he turned around

"come on, let's just go."

*Outside Konoha's north gate, eight hours later*

Pakkun had been running continuously for the last eight hours, when he finally reached the gates of Konoha it was around dusk and many stores were closing down for the night,

Pakkun was leaping from rooftop to rooftop, he was rushing towards the Hokage's office; it took Pakkun another ten minutes to reach the Hokage's building when he did he attempted to go in but was told she was busy with a meeting. Pakkun yelled, "Come on I need to get in there; a life is on the line!" The clerk gave Pakkun a stare before he nodded and walked over into a side office.

Moments late Shizune came walking out with the clerk she looked at Pakkun and

walked towards him

"Hello Pakkun, what are you doing here instead of Kakashi and the rest of team seven?" Her voice filled with surprise.

Pakkun was out of breath from his long journey but managed to say,

"This letter here is for Tsunade detailing the events of the mission, it involves Naruto and rouge ninja so we should discuss the contents elsewhere." Shizune's face changed to shock for a second before she regained control of her emotions.

She reached down and grabbed the letter that was fastened to Pakkun's back and stuck it inside her kimono, Shizune turned around shortly after and motioned for Pakkun to follow. It only took them thirty seconds to reach Tsunade's office, when they arrived Shizune ran up to the door and opened it and yelled

"Lady Tsunade." Just as Shizune entered she took notice of Kurenai and her Genin team.

Everyone's attention turned towards her as she entered. Tsunade was annoyed by this interruption for a moment, Tsunade looked at Shizune

"What is it Shizune, can't you see I am busy?" Tsunade demanded as her brown eyes narrowed at Shizune.

"I have an emergency report from team seven!" Shizune said as she pulled the scroll out from her kimono and started rushing towards Tsunade.

Tsunade eyed the scroll in Shizune's hand. When it was within reach of her she snatched it out of her hand and began reading the report.

Tsunade's face annoyed face turned into shock, she put the paper down and looked towards Shizune.

"Get me several Anbu units immediately!" Tsunade said as Shizune was turning around to leave the room. Tsunade's attention went towards Pakkun she looked down at him and said,

"Can you give me any more information than what was inside the scroll?"

"Well we know that he is missing and heavily injured, but we do not know if an enemy ninja has him alive or not," Pakkun replied as Tsunade looked at the members of team eight

"I need the four of you to prepare for a new mission," Tsunade said as Kurenai looked at Tsunade confused for a second before she regained herself.

"What is our new mission Lady Hokage?" Kurenai asked as she stared at Tsunade.

"As you all can tell that letter is a mission statement detailing the events of the mission," Tsunade said, as everyone's attention was on her.

Kurenai interrupted "Do we know if the enemy planned to capture Sasuke or not?" Which earned her a glare from Tsunade,

"Actually, Naruto is the one who has been captured," Tsunade replied as she looked over at Hinata who seemed to be going paler by the second.

Hinata's was shocked by Tsunade's words, she finally managed to bring up the courage to looked up at Tsunade and say, "Lady Hokage do we know if N…Naruto okay?"

Tsunade turned her attention to Hinata and smiled.

"I am sure Naruto is fine, nothing is going to stop him from achieving his dream!" Hinata's expression brightened up at these words and smiled.

Kurenai walked over to Tsunade's desk

"Excuse me Tsunade, but what are the events that led up to Naruto going missing?" Kurenai asked curiously, Tsunade turned her attention back to Kurenai and passed the scroll over to her.

"Team seven was to escort a high valued VIP to rain country where they would meet up with foreign shinobi who would escort the VIP the rest of the way," Tsunade replied as she started looking through several notebooks.

"Assassins were disguised as rain ninja and attacked them as the handoff was happening, the rest you can read from the report." Kurenai was looking through the scroll seconds later she placed it down.

"Lady Hokage, we will need more squads to search for Naruto properly," Kurenai stated as she began thinking about the mission details.

Tsunade took a deep breath and closed her eyes, after a few moments she opened her eyes.

"The four of you are charged with the mission of searching for any suitable ninja who you believe can carry out a search and rescue mission," Tsunade ordered.

"you all have ten days to find Naruto before we label him as killed in action and hold a formal funeral for him." As Tsunade was finishing her sentence several Anbu units walked into the room followed by Shizune.

"I went and fetched your personal Anbu," Shizune said as she began walking towards the exit, she was stopped when Tsunade yelled

"Shizune you will assemble a team for yourself and will be leading the search for Naruto and keep this mission on the down low." Shizune nodded and started heading out the door. Tsunade looked down at Pakkun and sternly said,

"I need you to go with them and help locate the area where you lost Naruto's scent." Pakkun glanced at Tsunade

"Roger," Pakkun replied as he rushed out the door to catch up with Shizune. Tsunade sat back in her chair and thought to herself

"Come on Naruto please be alive I know you are."

*Five hours later, outside the northern gate of Konoha*

Team eight had split up throughout Konoha to find shinobi who would both be useful and willing to help in a search and rescue mission for Naruto. They managed to gather Choji, Neji, Tenten, and Asuma.

All of them were waiting at the north gates for Shizune who was going to be leading the search.

Five minutes later Shizune and Pakkun appeared followed along by two others who jumped down in front of them. Among Shizune, there was Shikamaru Nara and Genma Shiranui. They all stood there for a minute before Kiba yelled

"Well, when are we leaving that loser isn't going to find himself you know, I would like to do other more important missions too; you know!" He was about to say something more but he was cut off when Shizune gave Kiba a glare and said,

"We are waiting for the Anbu squads to meet us here, after that I will debrief who goes on what team and what areas we will search. Any questions?" When Kiba finally calmed down and no one else said anything Shizune simply said,

"Good."

After about three minutes of waiting three Anbu squads jumped down in front of Shizune, Shizune looked at them and then said,

"Okay everyone is here, now I can begin." Shizune pulled a map out of her pocket "I need all of the Jonin and Anbu captains to join me over here." They all did as she commanded and walked over to her.

They began speaking about squad formations once they all walked over to her. Shikamaru was walking over to the other Genin but was stopped when Shizune yelled

"Shikamaru you to, your strategic mind is important and will be needed for this mission."

Meanwhile, the genin were talking with each other about the mission. Tenten looked at Neji and said, "Do any of you seriously believe that Naruto was killed by a simple explosion?" Choji nodded in agreement

"Yea I have to agree with Lee, Naruto is too strong to be killed off, he still has to become Hokage!" Neji, who had his eyes closed and was intent on listening decided to speak up

"don't ever say never, I never planned on losing to Naruto during the tournament but I did; a well-placed trap can kill even the strongest of Ninja, that is something we have all been taught from the academy."

At those words Hinata tensed up she was about ready to start crying over the thought of Naruto dying, seconds later Shino placed his hand on her shoulder which kicked her senses back in; Shino said,

"Don't worry about the outcome of the mission at this point it is too early to worry he could still be alive Hinata just focus on finishing the mission." Hinata was about to say something else but Shino interrupted her.

"find out what happened to Naruto before you give into your emotions, you may disrupt the efficiency of the search if your judgment is too clouded." Hinata nodded a bit before she focused on what everyone else was talking about.

Shizune yelled, "All right everyone let's move out." They all jumped into the tree line and started heading towards the border.

*Various Search groups one hour later*

Shizune looked behind her to the groups following her and yelled:

"all right when we make it to the gorge we are going to split up into our individual groups until then we will stick together; also remember to be fast and trust the sensory ninjas in your group."

*Team Seven, Three Hours Later*

Team seven had been walking the entire trip back to the village the team was quiet and depressed because of the mission, this depression and silence were unnatural for everyone there.

Sakura would occasionally make remarks that were meant to set Naruto off but remembered that he died, thoughts of the explosion that killed him and how she was too weak to be able to do anything about it started to overwhelm her. Tears began to run down her cheeks

"I miss Naruto, why did he have to die?" she said somberly, Kakashi looked at Sakura sorrow was written on his face

"No matter how hard you train or the mastery over Jutsu's you obtain, you will lose comrades in the line of duty; the only thing you can do in these situations is to prepare yourself for when it does happen and keep living your life in memory of your comrades," Kakashi replied, as he seemed to be drawn into his own thoughts and emotions.

Sasuke who was silent the whole trip said,

"Kakashi-sensei did you ever lose any comrades in the same way as this?"

Kakashi looked up into the clear blue sky and gave a deep sigh

"Yes, I lost some during the third shinobi war, and I was even acting how you are now Sasuke." Kakashi began walking again, while he was walking forward he thought to himself

"I'm sorry Sensei I failed to protect your son."

When they all made it to the front gates of Konoha they were greeted by the eternal Chunins, they both looked at them and said

"Hey Kakashi what happened to Naruto, don't tell me you left him behind?" Sakura started crying and instantly ran off to her home, Sasuke just started walking towards the Uchiha district with an even more gloomy face than he normally wears around if that was even possible.

One of them looked at Kakashi and said,

"Whats with them?" Kakashi walked forward and frowned,

"Naruto is not here because he was killed or captured during the mission," Kakashi replied as he started walking towards the Hokage office leaving the two Chunin shocked over this news.

*Two hours later, Hokage's office*

Kakashi, Sakura, and Sasuke all stood before Tsunade there was a moment of silence between the four. Tsunade finally spoke up.

"with the recent loss of your team member, I have been thinking about putting you all on medical leave to sort through your emotional issues." Just as she was about to continue Sakura interrupted

"We would like to continue searching for Naruto" Tsunade looked at Sakura questioningly

"What if he is dead, what if he has been taken as a prisoner; can you look me straight in the eye and tell me you're your better judgment would not be affected?" Tsunade said, her tone harsh and cold, but still filled with care.

Sakura's head dropped down in depression but moments later Sasuke looked up at Tsunade with a fire in his eyes.

"Even if he is dead we owe it to him gather his remains I was powerless when my clan was slaughtered off and I was powerless to save Naruto from that explosion I... No, we owe it to Naruto to recover his remains." Sasuke replied, his response gave Sakura more than enough courage to look deadest on her team's decision.

Tsunade looked at them all and sighed,

"fine then I won't stop you all but looking for Naruto cannot come in between the missions you need to complete if there is a lead that the Anbu has picked up you will be informed, dismissed."

*one day later, Border between the Land of Fire and Rain*

Shizune and company arrived where team sevens camp was, they quickly set up camp at the bottom of the gorge near the water's surface; shortly after the camp was set up Shizune pulled out a map.

"Alright we only have so many days to finish this mission, so I want the Anbu captains to lead their squads in four different directions; North, West, South, and East."

One of the Anbu captains spoke up "What are our orders if our search leads us into foreign lands?"

Shizune thought about it for a second

"If your search takes you into a different land, I want you to turn around at the first sign of contact with foreign shinobi; or you search within a five-kilometer distance."

Shizune turned her attention towards Kurenai,

"You and your squad are to follow the stream, in case Naruto actually was pulled further downstream; and the hounds were unable to follow his scent."

Shizune turned her attention towards Asuma "Asuma, you and your squad are to check along the Northeast, in case Naruto wandered that way while he was injured." She then looked at one of the Anbu captains

"If you and Asuma's search party have nothing to show for your search within five hours you all should move down to the Southeast." Shizune gave a glance to Pakkun and said, "I need you to go with Asuma's team, and give assistance to them."

Shizune was looking around at everyone, she quickly stood up and yelled

"You all are dismissed, but remember the report says that there were at least two assassins who survived, and one unknown shinobi in the area so be wary of an ambush." With that, everyone disappeared into the trees leaving only Shizune, Shikamaru, and Genma.

*Asuma's search group*

Currently, Asuma was standing upside down on a tree branch looking over the forest floor, he yelled out

"Hey Neji, Choji have either of you got any clues or leads as to where he is?" Neji yelled

"None but there are signs of movement along the forest going to the west should we follow?" Asuma closed his eyes in thought for a moment he finally broke the silence

"No, not yet but we will go that way after we search the limits of our parameters." Suddenly a pair of long stretched legs started shrinking until Choji was at his normal height.

"I could not see any signs of a camp or a place where people could hide, I am sorry Asuma-sensei," Choji said sadly with a look of depression written on his face. Asuma looked straight at Choji and said,

"Don't worry about it Choji, you Shouldn't focus on what you can't or didn't do for him, look at what you did do."

Asuma's group continued Northeast for three hours before Asuma said,

"all right everyone we will turn and head back to camp, okay Neji show us where you saw that trail." Neji nodded and took to the front of the group.

They traveled for about thirty minutes at a fast pace until they got to the spot where Neji first saw the footprints. When they made it to the end of the trail they found an old lodge out in the middle of nowhere.

The outside of the building was in terrible condition, there were holes in the roof and the walls; where there weren't any hole's mold and vines were growing.

Asuma walked up to the door and thought

"The likely hood of someone living here is low but..." Seconds later he yelled,

"Hello anyone home?" his tone was awkward after there was no response for a minute, Tenten looked frustrated and said

"There is no way someone is living in this house" as she was turning the knob on the door. After the door was opened she attempted to enter the building, but she was stopped from moving forward.

There was a clicking sound which forced her to duck to the ground, and everyone else to move out of the way when several shurikens flew overhead; she sighed a breath of relief but as the shuriken stopped coming. There was another clicking sound which forced her to roll out of the way as concealed kunai came dropping down out of the rafters onto where she was once laying.

Tenten was on her back panting a sigh of relief as the adrenaline started to kick in she started laughing for a second but was stopped when she was quickly grabbed by Neji who caught her from falling as two hidden trap doors fell to the sides to reveal a spike pit. Tenten turned her head around she turned back at Neji and gave an awkward look she yelled

"Oh, come on how many traps are there for just one doorway?" Neji looked down at her and said, "There was a sealing tag that stopped me from seeing inside the and outside the house. Neji pulled Tenten up and motioned for the group to follow him

"There are no more traps that I can see inside, but still be careful those traps mean that someone did not want to be found." They all began searching through the house taking their time as to not set off any more traps, as they went along at least a dozen more traps were set off.

As they searched around the building they came to one conclusion, it was completely empty and abandoned; other than food that was stored away, several sets of Shuriken and kunai that was placed in a neat pile next to the fireplace, and a bag of money that wouldn't have been found without Neji's Byakugan.

"This place seems to be used by a ninja, and more than likely rouge ninja by the remoteness of the location," Asuma said as he picked a kunai off the ground and began to inspect it. Tenten was inspecting the inside of the house and found it to be in worse condition than the outside she was pulled from looking around when Asuma yelled out

"Hey, Tenten what do you make of these kunai got any idea where they were made?" Tenten began inspecting the kunai shortly after she said,

"Well by the looks of these they come from all over ranging from Kiri to Kumo." Asuma was taking a quick scan of the room they were in he said,

"whoever was living here wanted this place to seem abandoned." Choji looked at Asuma curiously and said,

"Why would they do that?" Asuma looked at Choji and said

"It seems like this is a hideout they use to stash their loot and emergency supplies." Asuma looked around for another second before he yelled out "Everyone meet me outside we are done here let's meet back at the campsite!"

*Kurenai's search group*

Kurenai was in the front of the group running along the embankment, Hinata was scanning the general area around the group for anything that was hidden from normal sight. Kiba and Akamaru were sniffing around while there was still the scent of Naruto. Shino had his bugs spread throughout the forest looking for any sizable chakras.

Kiba began looking more irritable the further they followed the scent finally he spoke up

"The further we go the scent becomes harder and harder for me to track, and in some spots, the scent just dissipates and we are not even where Pakkun said the trail ended at." Shino turned his head towards Kiba and said,

"Where was all the enthusiasm from before about how easy this mission was?" Kiba looked annoyed for a second but covered it up quickly,

"Well, I didn't think that Naruto was going to be lost this badly!"

Hinata only looked down for a second in depression but quickly shook it off as she thought about the greatest hope she had Naruto's safe return.

The group had traveled for an hour or two before Naruto's scent disappeared completely, Hinata was searching around frantically for any sign of Naruto; she called out to Kurenai

"Can we slow down the pace, I can start doing more pinpointed searches since we don't have a scent to follow anymore?" Kurenai nodded and they began to slowly walk along the river's surface.

It only took them about forty minutes until Hinata stopped walking as she was intently focusing on her right she finally noticed that a campsite was far to their east. She yelled with excitement

"Everybody quickly follow me I see a campsite it might have a lead on where he is!" Everyone followed behind Hinata who was rushing everyone along five minutes went by and they came across a camp.

Everyone entered the camp but as Kiba and Akamaru attempted to they were stopped dead in their tracks. Kiba yelled out

"Hey guys I can't go any further there is some form of smell that is interfering with me and Akamaru's scent." Kurenai looked at him and yelled back

"Can you ignore it or is it too bad?"

"If Akamaru or I have to stay inside there for too long we will pass out it is a really strong smell." He replied which earned him an understanding nod from Kurenai. Hinata yelled out

"If we find any clue we will bring it to you.

when they entered the camp the first thing they noticed was there was a makeshift tent built around the buttresses of two trees on the south end of camp. there was a fireplace sitting in the center of camp with several logs surrounding it.

On the other end of camp there were several large sacks tied to many of the tree branches and finally, they noticed that there was a roll up bed on the ground next to the fire pit.

There was an ominous silence as the group inspected the camp, Kurenai was the first one to break the silence,

"It seems like this camp has been set up for a while and has seen consistent use." Hinata was investigating around the camp when she went over to the makeshift she noticed that there was a small amount of blonde hair that was laying on the bed. she looked towards the rest and smiled

"I have good news and bad news everyone, First I think this bed might be the clue we have been looking for!" Kurenai looked at the bed she was kneeling next to.

"If that is the case then we need to get this bed over to Kiba if Naruto slept in this bed he and Akamaru might know." They all started moving to where they had left Kiba, when they got there they saw him sitting on a log; he looked up at them and smiled

"you all find something?" he asked as they were walking closer. Shino was the first to speak up

"We may have a clue about Naruto being in the area but we need you to smell this bed before we can know for sure."

Kiba and Akamaru began sniffing the bed after a moment of silence Kiba's eyes shot open

"Naruto was sleeping in this bed at one point!" he exclaimed, which caused everyone to go wide eyed. Kurenai yelled

"Come on everyone we need to report this quickly!" After that everyone began rushing back to their campsite.

*Shizune's search group*

Shizune was looking at a map of the elemental nations along with Shikamaru, she spoke up after a minute of thinking.

"Alright if Naruto can't be found within the search zone, we could look at the possibility that one of the ninjas who survived captured him; if that is the case they have thought about selling him on a black market." Shikamaru didn't like the idea of one of his comrades being sold on a black market

"but if he was captured where could they have taken him, if they did capture him they might even be in different lands by now." Shikamaru replied.

"If that is the case then we would have to have the Anbu black ops handle retrieving him, but I don't think it will come to that," Genma said as he jumped down from a tree branch, Shizune turned towards him and said,

"Why do you say that?" Genma simply pointed behind him as Kurenai's search group jumped out of the trees and into camp

When Kurenai's team jumped into camp she said,

"Team two is reporting in," Kurenai said as she was standing at attention. Shizune turned away from the map

"Okay squad report!" Shizune commanded as Kurenai was stepping forward before she said anything she walked over to the map finally breaking the silence.

"While we were following Naruto's scent down the river Hinata spotted a camp to our east, when we went to investigate we noticed the camp was abandoned but recently used, there was a roll up mat that had Naruto's scent on it so we don't believe he was captured."

just as she was about to continue Asuma's group jumped into camp. She took a moment before continuing

"as I was saying Kiba and Akamaru found Naruto's scent but we were unable to follow it because there was a substance around the camp that rendered their sense of smell useless."

"Did you guy's try to see if his scent was anywhere within a five-mile radius of the camp?" Shikamaru said Shino shook his head

"We would have but it was getting dark and it would be easier to do the tracking in the morning when all of our members can see, also we thought it would be more useful to organize the search groups around that area; rather than continuing in the current search pattern," Shino replied casually as he shifted his arm upwards which released several beetles from his coat.

"Besides I have most of my swarm searching the areas for any sizable sources of chakra."

Shizune nodded and said,

"Alright then everybody rest up we will be waiting for the rest of the squads to meet back up here to debrief them and then we will move out at dawn!" They all nodded and started to relax around the camp, Shikamaru yelled out to Kurenai,

"Can you tell me and Shizune a bit more about the camp you guys discovered? Maybe with the information we have, we can discover who might have Naruto." Kurenai nodded and began to tell them about the camp.

"Shizune looked over at Asuma and said,

"We will need a report from you as well." Asuma only nodded as he sat down under a tree.

*Various search groups dawn of the next day,

Shizune was looking at the map, she had decided that they would all search the areas surrounding the camp. As they were all getting ready to leave Shizue yelled out

"Tenten change of plans you are going to return to Konoha, I need you to send word that we need more Inuzuka's for this search to go more smoothly." Tenten nodded and yelled

"Yes mam, I'll be back with reinforcements shortly!" Lee jumped out of sight into the tree line and headed towards Konoha.

Shizune turned her attention to the groups

"In the meantime, I want everyone to continue the search, if anyone finds a trail to follow, fire off your red flare and a team with a sensory ninja will come to assist, fire a green flare if you find Naruto, and fire the white flare if your life is in danger and everyone will come to assist."

Shikamaru looked over at Kiba and said,

"Look I know you won't like the idea of this but you and Akamaru need to be split up until we get more Inuzuka's to help on the search." Kiba looked outraged at first but calmed himself.

"Fine whatever I don't like being split up with Akamaru for too long but if this is the only option right now I'll do it," Kiba replied.

"We are also going to need you to circle around the camp until you find a scent out of here, you are dismissed meet up with your squad and tell them the current plan," Shizune said as Akamaru began walking over to Shikamaru as he was muttering.

*Hokage's office, one day later*

Tsunade was reading through a stack of papers when a man came into Tsunade's office he said,

"Lady Tsunade, Tenten is here to see you." Tsunade looked up from her paperwork

"Send her in." She replied as she was setting the stack of papers she had off to the side. Tenten had entered the room a minute later.

"What is the situation on the search?" Tsunade said, Tenten was hesitant to speak to someone who she idolized most of her life, she finally worked up the courage and said,

"Well we were unable to find Naruto but we found a campsite that was a mile away from the river, in that camp was Naruto's scent." Tsunade seemed pleased by how this conversation was going but was stopped short when Tenten continued.

"But Kiba was unable to follow it because there was something in the air that was messing with his sense of smell, Shizune is requestioning more Inuzuka's to be assigned and several more days."

Tsunade stood up and walked over to a filing cabinet and grabbed a large notebook out from it. She opened it and said,

"Alright I will assign you every available Inuzuka we have, and the timeframe will be increased indefinitely since you found a trace of him, I will have the Inuzuka's meet you at the North gates within the hour."

*Various search groups, two hours later*

Kiba, Akamaru, and Pakkun were all circling around the camp looking for any sign of Naruto's scent, they could not find any traces of him surrounding the camp, so they moved their groups out more. After about two hours of this Pakkun finally picked up his scent, he yelled out

"Shizune I found it!" Shizune's group came rushing over to him Shikamaru looked skeptically at Pakkun

"Are you sure it is his?" Pakkun gave an annoyed look at Shikamaru and said,

"Positive, and by the way who is the one with the heightened nose?" Shikamaru sighed and pointed at Pakkun, Pakkun smiled for a second. Shizune pulled out her red flare and fired it.

Moments later Asuma's group showed up, Shizune looked at Pakkun

"Lead on Pakkun." Pakkun lead the group for what seemed like hours until they finally came across another campsite, the group casually observed it for a moment before Neji said,

"There is a problem here!" Everyone looked at Neji questioningly

"What is it?" Choji replied as he was about to take a bite of a potato chip. Neji quickly grabbed it away from him and said,

"Be quiet, there is a dead shinobi over there behind the bushes!" Asuma looked around and said,

"I'll check it out." Asuma moved out of the bushes and into the campsite after about several moments he motioned for everyone to come over.

"This is a dead mist Anbu, he seems to have had his throat slit," Asuma said as Shizune was walking over. "Shikamaru sighed

"I guess things just got more complicated huh." Moments later Pakkun yelled

"Naruto's scent is on this tree trunk and this cut wiring." Which caused several of them to move over to it.

"So, Naruto was captured by mist Anbu and then somehow was set free?" Asuma said as he was inspecting the wire.

"I know we are not supposed to do this unless it is an emergency but I think we should use the white flare and gather everyone here if there are mist Anbu traveling around the area," Neji said Shizune sighed

"I don't want to give the other groups a scare like that but fine." Moments later the white flare was launched into the sky. It only took about thirty minutes for every group to show up.

It seemed like Kiba was annoyed by the lack of eminent danger in the area when he was about to speak Kurenai cut him off

"What did you need us for?" Shizune pointed over to the body of the dead mist Anbu which caused respective nods from all the group leaders.

"Also, we found his scent and the direction it is heading in!" Choji said enthusiastically. Shizune moved so everyone could see her.

"From here on out we are all going to travel as a group unless the scent is lost, be careful and keep your eyes out we don't know how many of the enemy Anbu are roaming around!" she commanded, everyone simultaneously said,

"Yes mam!" as they were traveling along the scent they came across a whole mess of shuriken lodged in the trees and the ground, there was also considerable damage done to many of the trees in the surrounding area.

Hinata and Neji had their Byakugans activated the whole time keeping a look out for anything suspicious.

After a while of following the trail, they came across a cavern. Kiba yelled out

"The scent goes in there!" Shizune turned around and said,

"Alright, Neji Hinata what can you see in there?" Neji and Hinata were looking intently at the cave

"Well I can see that there is a lot of traps set up, there is also a campsite inside the cave that seems to have been abandoned," Neji replied, Shizune turned around and looked at the group.

"We do not know what to expect so be careful we only have two Hyuga's so there will be a lot of traps that we will run into." As they entered the cave they saw there were a lot of scorch marks along the walls and the camp was rummaged through.

After the first room, they were in was inspected fully they moved into the passage, where they walked for a minute before they came into a large clearing. When they all entered the room, they noticed it was a large dome-shaped cavern.

After they moved further in they found two more bodies one was decapitated and the other was being hung up by earth spikes that protruded from his entire body. Hinata looked at the bodies

"How horrible." She said. As Shizune walked over to the remains of the two Anbu after a minute of inspecting them she said,

"Something does not add up about this, Naruto at his current skill would never have been able to defeat these Anbu."

"And even if he could the way these two died says that someone else killed them," Asuma replied as he was looking at the decapitated Anbu.

"Neji yelled out

"Everyone come over here!" when everyone did they saw that there was a stone tablet that had a tattered orange jumpsuit on it, Hinata noticed a bit of text under it, she removed the jumpsuit and saw that the tablet said,

"Rip the Konoha genin." After she saw that her mind started traveling a million miles per second, after a few minutes of processing it she said aloud

"Naruto is dead?" Before she collapsed on the floor unconscious. Almost everyone yelled out to her. When she awoke, she was inside the cavern by a camp fire. She instantly shot up and asked,

"What happened, Is Naruto truly dead?" Kurenai looked at Hinata, pity, and sadness was in her eyes as she knew how Hinata felt about Naruto.

"We thought about digging the grave up but Neji said there was nothing under the surface." Hinata looked happy for a second but she quickly lost that and said,

"Then where is he?"

"We don't know probably captured by the ninja who killed all these Anbu," Kurenai replied.

"Everyone except team eight went back to Konoha to give a mission report after we were done investigating; there was no tracks or scent that we could follow!"

"Come on we need to return to Konoha Hinata." Hinata only nodded and followed behind Kurenai and the rest of team eight followed behind, the group completely discouraged by the failed mission.

* * *

If anyone has any questions about the chapter feel free to ask me, also don't forget to leave a review whether it is about my grammar and punctuation or the story itself!


	3. The Lost Becomes Found

Finally, an update is what some of you may be thinking, but don't worry the lack of updates has all been due to my laziness. I'll try to get the chapters updated faster, so here is a lengthened chapter.

The Lost Becomes Found!

*The bridge, three days prior*

Naruto was running as fast as he could, he looked over his shoulder and saw that Sakura was slowing down every second, the damage she received in the fight had taken its toll on her.

Naruto knew that if she didn't get off the bridge soon she would die and he wouldn't be able to live with himself if that happened, he cared for her. In a split-second decision, he turned the other way and rushed towards her with renewed energy, he grabbed her hand and threw her over to Kakashi.

Naruto was happy for a second, but he realized where he was and started running as fast as he could, he was almost to the end of the bridge when an explosion happened just below him, the force of the explosion was enough to throw him like a ragdoll over the edge.

As he was freefalling he frantically looked around for something anything to grab ahold of, it was hard for him to focus on anything his vision was a blur after the explosion his body was going through constant pain and he was covered in scorch marks from head to toe.

He spotted a ledge that he could grab ahold of, he reached his hand out to grab it but, realized that his arm wasn't moving, after an intense amount of pain he managed to force his arm to move through the intense pain. He yelled in pain as his arm grabbed ahold of the ledge not a second too late.

His fingers were locked in what seemed like a vice grip, until his fingers gave out and he yelled

"Shit!" Naruto started falling again, it took him for what seemed like hours as he was falling; finally, he was about to hit the bottom of the gorge but as he was about to do so his head slammed into a nearby rock, the last thing he saw before he blacked out was falling into the river and floating.

*Random shoreline, time unknown*

Naruto barely opened one of his eyes as he was looking around, the first thing he noticed was the shore he washed up on, he tried to stand up but screamed in pain as he realized that both his legs were broken, parts of his body looked like they were ripped to shreds, and he was covered in scorch marks from head to toe.

Naruto tried crawling forward but began to pass out, before he fell unconscious he saw a figure walked over to him, they knelt and began checking for a pulse. He managed to hold on to his consciousness for a moment.

Suddenly his body was shot with pain as his stomach was kicked by the new figure. He could tell it was a woman, because shortly after she yelled in his ear.

"Look what I found here, it's the brat who wounded me and killed my group." She suddenly stomped on his broken legs causing Naruto to scream in pain again as she ground her foot into his leg.

"I am going to have so much fun torturing you until you take your last breath, you piece of shit!" She yelled as she began kicking his stomach making him gasp for air.

She picked him up by his throat and threw him into a tree, Naruto was about to collapse onto the ground but was held up to the tree.

The woman cocked her hand back and repeatedly punched him in the head. She pulled a kunai out of her pouch and stabbed him in the leg causing him to yell in pain again.

"He seems to be getting used to the pain, guess I'll just change things up." she said as she pulled the kunai out of his leg and stabbed it into his rib cage.

Naruto blacked out for a moment, the next time he opened his eyes, his eyes were replaced with red slits, he felt himself becoming more feral and stronger by the second.

What use to be painful seemed like a bee sting now, Naruto was standing on his legs as if they were perfectly fine. He yelled,

"You're going pay for that!" The woman was slightly put off balance by this, there was a small chill of fear and doom creeping up the back of her spine.

She regained composure and gave out a snort.

"What are you going to be able to do, you spent most of your chakra in the battle at the bridge." Naruto only looked at her as he yelled.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu." Suddenly hundreds of feral Naruto clones appeared and started charging at the woman. She simply jumped into the sky and yelled.

"Firestyle Fire Bomb Jutsu." Most of the clones were destroyed, and a large screen of smoke covered the battlefield, the woman was finding it hard to keep track of her surroundings. Suddenly Naruto appeared out of the smoke with a kunai in hand and attempted to cut her throat, she narrowly somersaulted backwards and kicked him in the jaw causing him to explode into smoke.

Seconds later another Naruto came out of the smoke and tried to stab her but she saw it coming and grabbed his wrist and threw him into the ground, just as the clone slammed into the ground another clone came out and tried to stab her in the back. She saw this and couldn't block in time so she rolled forward out of his way but in the process, was given a slash across her leg.

She gritted her teeth and glared at him, but seconds later after dodging another clone she smiled. She put her hands on the sign for a simple clone when it was summoned she had it transformed to look as much like Sakura as she could remember from her brief time seeing the girl.

She noticed the smoke was starting to clear, she dived into the earth and left the clone up there for a distraction. When the smoke was clear of the area, Naruto yelled.

"There you are!" Just as he and the rest of his clones he saw that it was Sakura, he paused for a moment, but realized that the Sakura he was staring at was different, he remembered he was separated from the rest of the group.

His realization came too late, as the woman jumped up from the ground and slashed a kunai through the back of his neck. Naruto fell to the ground trying to hold onto the back of his neck as the blood was slowly draining from him, soon it became a small puddle beneath him.

The woman smiled as she turned around and started walking away. Naruto was trying as hard as he could to breathe until his rage and fear started building up; soon he found that breathing was becoming easier.

He slowly started to stand up, the gaping wound in the back of his neck was becoming smaller and smaller, while a red aura was starting to bubble out of Naruto.

The woman sensed something was wrong and turned around to see Naruto, on all fours growling ferociously as a red tail was flailing about widely. She didn't bother to hide her fear as she yelled.

"What are you, you monster!" Naruto began charging at her at full speed, she barely managed to sidestep him, seconds later his tail started flying towards her trying to grab her.

She rolled out of the way narrowly and kicked Naruto in his side launching him into the mountain side. She didn't waste any time to launch several fireballs at him. She sighed hoping that was the end of him, her eyes shot out in horror as Naruto jumped out of the smoke and punched her in the stomach causing her to launch into the ground and slid several feet.

She coughed and tried to stand up, but Naruto was in front of her already and he now had two tails. His tails both transformed into a hand and grabbed each of her arms and held her up. She started screaming as the demonic chakras were starting to infect her.

Naruto started punching her repeatedly his chakra arms started lowering her down to the ground, he was just about to punch her head but a voice from behind made put him on edge.

"Wait, kid, I don't know what she has done but maybe you will regret doing thiss!" a feminine voiced said.

Naruto turned his head slightly towards the intruder, by this point the natural energies of the Kyuubi were starting to infect Naruto's judgment. The woman being held by his chakra arms was slammed into a tree and then into the ground, her body limp.

He charged at the woman, and attempted to slash her with a kunai, but she sidestepped Naruto and did an upper kick to his hand which knocked the kunai out of his hand and into the air, as her first leg was airborne she did a sweeping kick aimed for Naruto's head.

Naruto saw her kick coming and grabbed her leg, he attempted to slam her into the ground but her leg just turned into water and fell through his hands. She looked at Naruto and gave a saddened look.

"I am sorry it had to be this way kid." Naruto only glared at her in response, for a moment before his bloodlust took over and he started charging.

"Earth style Earth Spear Jutsu." She yelled several spears of earth shot out of the ground towards Naruto he easily evaded most of them and destroyed any that he couldn't.

The woman couldn't keep up and Naruto was closing in on her, suddenly his chakra arms grabbed hold of her waist and started dragging her closer to him, increasing the speed at which his fist would collide with her.

His fist connected with her stomach, but once again she turned into water and just fell below him becoming a puddle, a second later she solidified back into her old form behind Naruto and put him into a choke hold.

Naruto grabbed ahold of her arms and flipper her in front of him and attempted to claw at her back, but the woman rolled out of his reach. When she turned around and looked at Naruto, her face held shock, as she realized what she was looking at.

"Shit this kid's a Jinchuriki!"

She was in the process of pulling out an explosive tag but Naruto jumped at her with amazing speeds, he took a swipe at her head, she leaned backward's dodging his strike completely she kicked him in the back of the head and sent him sliding several feet away.

Naruto charged at her trying to slash her head but she already had the tag out and rolled past his swipe, she quickly turned around and slapped an explosive tag on his back and leaped away. She turned around and faced the smoke as she was looking around a thought came to mind, she said,

"Hidden Mist Jutsu."

Mist crept all around the area as she leaped further back and pulled a kunai as well as a tag that had several weird markings surrounding the kanji for suppression.

She was in the process of formulating a plan in her head as she thought she was safe for the time being, but Naruto rushed her through the mist and attempted to punch her. She dodged the swipe but was surprised when Naruto kicked her in the gut.

She staggered back from the blow for a second before she saw him charging at her again, an idea came to mind and she followed suit as she readied the tag in one hand and a kunai in the other.

Naruto attempted to slam his fist into her head, but just as it was about to connect with her flesh she used her hand holding the kunai to push on his arm and move out of the way. She rolled behind him and slapped the tag on the center of his back and did a backflip to increase the distance between them.

She reached into her pouch and pulled another tag out, as she rushed at him, kunai in hand, Naruto's movement were more sluggish as he attempted to swipe at her with one of his chakra tails. But his tails would only twitch in response, finally he decided to start moving closer as she moved closer. Until finally, they were an arms-length apart.

He punched at her neck with one hand and clawed at her kidney with the other. As he was about to land the blow she ducked under his punch and slapped the tag on his other arm.

When the tags effects kicked in his arm went limp, he attempted to pull it off, but she pressed the assault, and kicked his arm away and slashed at his shoulder with the kunai. She jumped back a few feet as she pulled some ninja wire out of her pocket and two tags as she started to rush towards Naruto.

When she got within five feet of him, he tried to swipe at her with his only working arm but she easily evaded it and wrapped the ninja wire around his wrist. She used the momentum of his swipe to bind his arm across his abdomen, Naruto was pulling at the wire trying to get free, and the wire was starting to tear from the force.

But before it did she dropped her kunai and slapped both tags on the backside of his legs. Naruto fell face forward onto the ground. By this time his arm was free and he was trying desperately to claw at her.

She pulled out another two tags and slapped one on his arm and the other on his forehead. When the tag contacted his forehead, Naruto started to scream and wail. After an entire five minutes of pain filled cries he finally passed out and the nine tails cloak started to slowly dissipate

The woman had a grim look on her face, she gave a heavy sigh as she picked Naruto up and slumped him over her shoulder and started walking away.

Moments later Naruto woke up, however, he was barely managing to stay awake as the strain on his body was heavy. Seconds later he began to lose consciousness, he could remember his fight with the kunoichi after he was blown off the bridge.

He desperately started looking around for any familiar faces to show he wasn't in any kind of danger. but he couldn't move his head very well or any of his body for that matter.

He tried to listen for the voices of Kakashi or Sakura, hell even the voice of that cocky bastard Sasuke would have been a welcoming sound for him, but all that welcomed him was deadpan silence.

He passed out moments later, with the fear of death on his mind.

*location unknown, timeframe unknown*

When Naruto woke up the first thing he noticed was that he was in a campsite somewhere. It didn't take long for him to notice the amount of pain that was coming from all over his body.

He inspected himself as much as he could, his legs were wrapped with makeshift tourniquets, and as far as he could tell his body was covered from head to toe in bandages. Even breathing was causing pain so to say he was experiencing pain was an understatement.

He was looking around the camp to try and discern who he was with, but he noticed it was too small and empty to be team sevens camp. It seemed like there was barely enough room for him to fit.

Seconds later Naruto heard footsteps off in the distance, he looked to where the sound was coming from and started to make out the form of someone walking out from the shadows into camp.

"you're finally awake, care to tell me how you ended up a test subject for explosive tags, and the punching bag of that kunoichi back there?" a feminine voice inquired. Naruto ignored her at first, as he didn't know if he could trust her; he attempted to stand up from the bed he was laying on but realized neither his legs or his arms were responding.

"Easy now kid we don't want you to reopen those wounds I just got the bleeding to stop!" She stated as she slowly walked towards him until she was standing in front of him.

The first thing he noticed about her was her green eyes that were gazing at him with a look of concern, as she stood back he noticed that she had blonde hair that was held up in a braid.

Her outfit was contrived of a gray flak-jacket that was overlapping a long-sleeved green shirt. Her forearms were covered with long gray bracers that stopped at her elbows. From what he could tell her pants were a dark green camo but most of her legs were covered by gray shin guards that extended down to her ankles.

There was a long time of silence between the two as she began inspecting Naruto's body for any opened wounds.

The silence was finally broken.

"What did you do to me?" Naruto demanded as his eyes were glancing from one end of the camp to the other.

She seemed to ignore his question as she spoke softly,

"Hey kid, what's your name?" Her green eyes were peering into Naruto's blue ones.

Naruto was still shaken up from his near-death experience, he looked up at her hesitantly not knowing whether he could trust her or not.

He finally broke out of his silence and asked,

"What happened to the other woman attacking me?" The woman was in the process of turning around and walking away when Naruto asked the question.

"The woman down by the river, you killed her; but that still doesn't answer my question, who are you?" She replied, her voice holding no hatred or malice.

Naruto was surprised, he could never remember a time when he killed someone, severely injure yes, but never actually kill someone.

He wanted to protest, stand up and demand what made her think he killed her, but his body still wasn't responding or moving no matter how hard he tried to get them to.

He started freaking out on the inside when he thought his legs weren't working. The only thing that made him reassure himself that his legs were still functional was the occasional pain that shot through them.

He decided to stop trying to force himself to move, but by this point, the mysterious woman was standing over a boulder with a bowl in one hand and plants in the other.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki, but how do I know you are not one of her friends?" He asked. After he gave his name her eyes seemed to pop out of her head for a second before going back to normal.

"If I was her friend you would probably be dead, besides if you want solid proof I can just run down and fetch her head for you?" she replied as she started adding plants into the bowl.

"No, no I would rather you didn't!" Naruto said as he started shaking his hands and head nervously. After he managed to convince himself she was joking, he asked

"Anyways what's your name?" Naruto asked as the woman began crushing the plants in the bowl, she briefly looked over at Naruto for a moment before she sighed

"Well, I guess it is common courtesy, that I give you my name since I am obligated to just give my name out to any child I come across." She replied sarcastically, Naruto was staring blankly at her waiting for a response, after a minute of awkward silence, the woman gave a deep yet annoyed sigh, as she finished crushing the plant.

"I was being sarcastic, but you still haven't explained how you ended up being half dead and washed up on my shore." She stated as she walked over to Naruto with the bowl in hand. Naruto looked down into his lap and gave a depressing look

"Honestly, I do not know how I ended up like this, it's all just a blur to me, all I can remember is my comrades and I showed up at the bridge to escort a client to Ame." the woman was stopped in her tracks as she gave Naruto a glare that held suspicion, seconds later she gave an emotionless stare. After a moment of her deciding what to do she crouched down beside him and held out a bowl of crushed plants.

"Take this and apply it to the knife wounds right here and here," she ordered as she pointed to a spot on his rib cage and thigh. Naruto looked at her and made a grunting noise before he said.

I would take the bowl but, my arms and legs can't move because of something you did to me!" The woman smacked her head with her free hand and said,

"Oh, sorry about that sometimes I forget about my handiwork sometimes." Naruto had an expression of shock as he said,

"Sometimes?" She only gave a nervous laugh as she said,

"Yeah sorry, let me fix that." As she started pulling the two tags off his arms.

"Your arms should be able to work now, but your ribcage was punctured with a kunai; you're lucky she didn't want to stab you a foot higher otherwise she would have hit your heart." She stated as she started standing up and walking towards a log that she sat on moments later.

Naruto looked at the plants in the bowl and was judging whether he should apply the plants to his wound or not.

"What is this stuff?" he asked as his gaze shot over to her.

"Those are medicinal plants, they won't magically heal you but they will stop you from getting an infection." she said as she started poking the fire with a stick.

Naruto was hesitant at first, but eventually, he started applying the plants to any of his open wounds, where ever the plants were applied there was a stinging sensation for several moments. He looked over at the woman who saved him and smiled

"Thank you for saving me, but can I know you're name or something I can refer to you by?" The woman looked over at him for a second before she seemed to go into thought, moments later she said,

"Yea… Call me Ryo." She stated,

"Ryo?" Naruto asked.

"Mhm, got a problem with it kid?" she replied.

"Well no, I was just thinking you could have come up with a better name than money," Naruto stated as he looked questioningly at her.

"And what's wrong with a name like money kid?"

"It just makes you sound like a greedy money hoarder." A tick mark appeared on Ryo's forehead at his response.

"Hey, I'll have you know, that this is a damn good name, people would die to have the luxury to name themselves after something like money!" She stated as her patience was getting thinner by the second.

"That's not even a good reason, but I'm just saying maybe you could have picked a better name than money," Naruto muttered the last part to himself.

"Great leave it to lady luck, to leave me with an annoying washed-up child." Ryo thought as she turned away from Naruto to calm herself down.

"I need to ditch this kid fast otherwise my sanity is at risk, but on the other hand he is a Jinchuriki and could help me with my plans." She thought as she turned her head around to stare at Naruto for a moment before turning it forward again and going back into deep thought.

"But carting a jinchuuriki around is a good way to draw attention and get killed, and quite obviously he is somebodies jinchuuriki, so if I take him I'll be hunted; decisions, decisions."

"Alright so I won't keep him but it won't hurt anybody if I just borrow him for a while." She turned her head to look at him again for a moment, before going back to her thoughts.

"His nationality is going to dictate how much of a threat I'm going to go through." "I know he isn't the one tail or two tailed, as he was in the process of forming a third tail." Ryo had continued to banter to herself like this for a good while. By this point Naruto had been trying to get her attention but to no avail; finally, he became fed up with it and decided to use his one good arm to pick up a rock and throw it at her.

He was amazed as the rock managed to hit her head, she turned around and yelled,

"What the fuck was that for?" Naruto looked a little nervous as he replied,

"Sorry I was trying to get your attention, and I thought you would have dodged."

She gave him an angry stare, as she took a deep breath in and exhaled,

"Okay, we need to get you home as soon as possible!" Ryo exclaimed, trying not to seem the least bit affected by Naruto's pestering.

Naruto was curious about her sudden change in attitude but shook that thought away for more pressing matters.

"Okay then do you know where Konoha is, and how long it would take for you to transport me there?" Naruto asked, in an excited tone. Ryo nodded as she smacked herself on the head and thought.

"Konoha, of course, why didn't I think of that; his outfit and mannerisms should have given it straight away."

"Ryo, can you take me back to Konoha?" Naruto yelled breaking her out of her thought, she glanced at him and went back into thought for a second

"But I didn't know they still had their jinchuuriki, and I don't have any decent intel on what Biju it is." She thought as she let out a large sigh as she said,

"I can't take you back to Konoha just yet."

"What why not?" Naruto demanded as he narrowed his eyes at Ryo.

"Well first things first, before we go to Konoha; your wounds need to heal because I will not carry you in your current condition, or spend what little money I have on transportation."

"Then why did you name yourself money if you can't even afford a ride for me?" Naruto replied, Ryo looked a little irritated at that, but glanced up at the sky and said,

"I am going through a rough patch all right!" she exclaimed in defense.

"Then why won't you take me yourself and drop me off?" Naruto asked abruptly as he was getting impatient and frustrated.

"I refuse to carry you anywhere long distance unless there is no choice because you can still get infected very easily with the way your wounds are; and I don't want to be worried about defending a child, on the off chance that we are attacked along the journey."

"Why are you worried about having to be attacked long the journey?" Naruto stated as he turned his head to his left and saw where a water skin was lying on the ground.

Ryo looked off to the side as she was starting to sweat slightly, she thought.

"Shit, quickly what can I say to get him off my back?" Seconds later, in the most ominous voice, she could muster, said,

"Ever hear of, the ghost of ?" Outside her face was calm and serious, but on the inside, she was screaming at herself.

"Ghosts, that's the best I could come up with, he'll never believe that; I would be the laughing stock of my clan if they could hear my lie right now."

"G…ghosts." Naruto stuttered as he was shaking slightly. Ryo was staring at Naruto in disbelief.

"Oh my god he actually believes me." She took a moment to savor the moment before she let out a cough.

"Well yes, but no number of ghosts are going to be a problem, for a ninja of my caliber!" Ryo stated proudly, as she smacked her chest.

"Yeah right, you must be some ninja to be unable to avoid that rock I threw while being heavily injured." Naruto retorted as he laid back down on his bed. A tick mark appeared on Ryo

"Well, that's because I was in deep thought at the time. It's only natural that I wasn't able to notice it in time." She replied cutting Naruto off was about to say something else.

"Oh, please my Sensei reads a book all the time and he can dodge all my attacks easily." He scoffed.

"So, I get a little too focused on my thoughts, what makes you think he's any better than me?" Ryo replied suddenly and harshly as she began moving from one end of the camp to the other grabbing supplies.

"Well you're appearance doesn't exactly scream, trained killing machine." Ryo stopped moving, she looked down at herself and shrugged.

"Point taken." Was her only response, seconds later she began moving around the camp again.

Naruto finally started to notice all the extra movement she was doing, he thought about asking what she was doing but decided it could wait until she was finished.

When she had finished gathering supplies, she pulled a vial out of her flak jacket, and put her opposite hand next to it, she started channeling chakra into her hand until it was glowing with a bright blue hue.

She began to pour the contents of the vial onto her hand which caused the liquid to start evaporating into a black smoke that started to spread throughout the entire area before it dissipated without a trace.

Ryo began walking over to Naruto until she stood right in front of him. Naruto stared at her puzzled and curious.

"Okay we have a slight change of plans, we need to leave camp immediately." She stated as she began kneeling.

"Why do we need to leave now, I thought you weren't taking me back to Konoha yet?" Naruto asked, as his attention was focused on the three bags held in her right hand and the Kunai in her left.

"Quickly climb on, we need to get out of here." She stated as she turned around and motioned for him to climb onto her back. He was hesitant to listen at first but Ryo obviously being pressed for time said,

"If you don't climb on you will have a fifty-fifty chance of surviving." Naruto decided he would trust her and grabbed ahold of her shoulders and held on. Ryo stood up and jumped into the tree line, hopping from branch to branch.

Along the way Naruto occasionally winced in pain as one of his legs would smack up against a tree branch.

"Sorry if this isn't the most comfortable ride, but right now we need to be fast and I need to be decisive since you won't be much help." She stated while jumping onto another tree branch.

Naruto was looking around cautiously as he asked,

"Why did we leave camp in a hurry, what was in that vial that caused the smoke?"

"Several ninjas were approaching the camp at a high speed, so it wasn't safe; as for the vial that is a special blend that stops most if not all tracking animals, it was created with chakra being the main catalyst in mind." She replied. Naruto was staring at the back of her head as he said,

"How do we know if they were enemy ninja's or not?"

"We don't." was her only response, Naruto was frustrated with the answer he was given.

"Then why did we leave before we could know for sure, they could have been friends of mine for all we know?" He demanded as outrage was starting to settle in.

Ryo turned her head to the side to look at him.

"I will admit I do not know if it was your people or not, but either way there would have been danger had we stayed there under our current condition; I have not stayed alive this long by taking chances and I'm not going to start now!" She retorted as her head turned forward again, Naruto glared at her for a second.

"If that's the case why didn't you leave me back there so if it was them I would be returned home, and why did you say either way there would have been danger?" Naruto stated, which caused Ryo to let out a deep sigh.

"Let's just say I'm a traveling Ninja and leave it at that." She said, apologetically.

"A traveling ninja." Naruto retorted followed by a scoff.

"If you were just a traveling ninja, then there wouldn't have been any danger if they were friends of mine."

Ryo was silent for a moment,

"look in my line of work, there is little to no room for error; let's say that the group was looking for you and I did attempt to leave you in their care, there are one of two ways the confrontation would have gone."

She closed her eyes for a second before she gazed forward.

"the first I leave you there and everybody calls it good and goes their separate way, or they recognize my face, while I am attempting to leave; they will jump to conclusions and I will either end up dead or actively pursued again." Naruto only glared at her in response for a second before he replied,

"So, you're a criminal?"

"What, no I'm a freedom fighter!" she snapped,

"A freedom fighter, wouldn't be worried about somebody recognizing their face, they would also be trying harder to help a boy with broken legs go home!" Naruto retorted as he shifted his gaze to the left.

"Look here Uzumaki, I didn't check and see if they were your people for a damn good reason."

"Yea and what's your excuse old lady?" Naruto stated, causing Ryo's head to turn to the side slowly as a demonic stare was seeping from her eyes.

"Kid never, and I mean never call me or any woman for that matter old; it may just be the last thing you ever say." Her harsh glare disappeared as she looked forward to where she was going.

"If it was the group that is looking for me, and had even the slightest belief or clue that you knew who I was, or have had contact with me, they would try to extract that info from you, and use it to get to me; and trust me you would be in a state where you wished you were dead, and I will not risk my life or your life just because you wanted to go home early." Ryo said, as Naruto only shifted his gaze away from her and went silent, he realized that he wasn't going to get anywhere at this point.

"Besides it's better this way, now I don't have to worry about kicking any buckets today." She said as she was jumping to another tree branch.

Naruto's view of Ryo wasn't good at this moment, she didn't even attempt to check and see if it was anyone from Konoha and she seemingly kidnapped him. Moments later his eyelids became heavy as he was starting to drift to sleep.

*One day later*

When Naruto woke up, the first thing he noticed was that he was inside a cave, the second was that his legs were sore and in pain but, they weren't giving him the same agonizing pain as they did the day before.

His gaze started shifting around the room once more before he slowly started to rise from the bed he was laying on.

When Naruto stood fully upright, he struggled to hold his balance as his eyes wandered along the crevices and cracks of the surface of the cave. He took note of the cave exit and the mass of foliage that covered its entrance.

He began to slowly walk towards it, with the thought of leaving in mind. When he made it to the entrance he could see the outside world and trees beyond the various plants and vines that covered the hole.

As he was moving the foliage out of the way his hand brushed across a wire and got stuck on his thumb, which pulled the wire from its resting place and set off a trap that only made a slight sound behind him.

Naruto looked behind him to where the noise came from, all that greeted him was the sight of several shurikens flying towards him. Naruto panicked a little bit before he fell forward, barely missing the shuriken.

Seconds later Ryo appeared from a tunnel that was near the device that shot the shuriken, she was holding a kunai in one hand. She was glancing around the cave for a brief second before her eyes landed on Naruto who was still laying down on the ground. She looked to be a little shocked.

"How did he regenerate that fast, I know he is a Jinchuriki but that's just insane."

Naruto swallowed a lump in the back of his throat, as he was breathing heavily after the adrenaline of almost being killed was starting to wear off. He looked up at her and his face turned into a scowl before he yelled,

"What the hell, why are you leaving traps around like that, I could have been killed." Ryo smiled gently as she walked over to him squatted down and patted his head, she said,

"That trap was something any Chunin or Genin who was paying attention would have been able to dodge."

"But were you trying to leave?" She asked

"No?"

"Oh… No, he says." Ryo replied as she gave him a serious look for a second which disappeared as she started laughing for a while. Suddenly her face became serious, as there was a silence in the air.

" When I brought you here I went out to check who the group was, and it turned out to be people after me, so I need you to lay low in here for a couple days." Naruto looked skeptically at her, as he replied.

"No, if they are people after you then I should be able to sneak away from here and head home."

"It wouldn't be that simple you are still injured, and have no way of identifying yourself to Konoha."

"It doesn't matter I need to get back to Konoha I'm sure everyone is worried about me!"

"I am sure that is a very important, but you need to know I have spent a lot of resources on keeping you alive, many of which are extremely hard to come by when you live in seclusion like me, so the least you could do is show me how grateful you are, by trying to stay alive and wait until your fully healed before you start trying to move around too much."

Naruto clenched his fists at her words,

"Why, why do you act like that?" He asked, as his gaze raised up to meet hers.

"What do you mean?" She asked, as her head tilted slightly.

"You said that you would help me get back to Konoha but your actions yesterday say otherwise, why do you treat me like I am free to go whenever I want when that obviously not the case?" Naruto stated as he stood up, and looked outside once more.

"Ah yes, I see why you would be confused." She plainly said, as she walked right next to him and moved a vine out of her way to gaze outside.

Seconds later she turned her head towards him and said,

"Mutually assured survival." Naruto was puzzled by her response he turned his head towards her and said,

"What?" Ryo only gave him a bored look as she said,

"I am more than willing to return you to your home, but while doing so I am not going to endanger myself in situations where I'll die." Naruto was about to open his mouth to reply but was cut off when she continued.

"And whether it was friends of yours or enemies of mine that situation would have gone south fast and forced me into a fight for my life with very little gain." She gave a sad smile as she started walking away.

"If it makes you feel better you can do whatever you want; just do not do anything that would cause your injuries to reopen, or go too far outside until I know it is safe." With that she began walking deeper into the cave Naruto yelled out

"Hey, aren't you worried I'll still try to escape." She turned her head slightly and glanced at him,

"No, not really, to worry about an escape attempt, I would first have to consider you a prisoner." Ryo turned around and started walking towards the tunnel she first appeared from. She turned her head to the side and yelled,

"There is a map in the center of the room you can plan where you're going to check first, food is in the green bag, other than that you are free to leave as you see fit." Naruto glanced at the supplies and said,

"How will I remember where to go without the map?" Ryo just kept on walking not even looking back as she yelled.

"The map is yours to keep so is the food bag." Naruto was surprised by her words but seconds later became slightly suspicious of her motives.

When Ryo had left, Naruto decided he would look at the map and see if he could discern where he was on the map. When he crouched down to inspected it, he realized two things. He didn't know where he was and didn't know how to read a map in the first place.

"Now I know where Konoha is on the map, but there aren't any markers indicating where I am." He muttered as his eyes began looking around the room again. His eyes were drawn to what looked like a light blue book that was slightly covered by a sack of supplies sitting on top of it.

He bent down and removed the sacks covering the book, when he picked it up he noticed that it was missing a title. He was just about to open the book out of curiosity but Ryo entered the cavern by that time and caused his focus to shit to her.

Her expression was blank as she gave a stare back at Naruto her eyes traveled down to the book in his hand.

"Ah that's where my journal went, I hope you know it's very impolite to read a lady's journal," Ryo stated as she gave a small smile, Naruto instantly put all his curiosity behind him and threw it towards her, which she caught and proceeded to write in.

After she wrote a log in the book she walked over to a large knapsack and pulled out a series of ninja wire, she walked towards the cave exit.

turning her head slightly Ryougetsu looked at Naruto and said,

"I am going out for a while, stay in here until I come back I'll tell you if there is a threat still out there."

Seconds later she pointed to a rock that was behind Naruto.

"extra food is in the bags behind the rock, don't touch anything inside the red backpack that is my stuff; everything else in this cave you have open access to." She casually said, as she started walking away, Naruto looked at her one last time before she left the cave.

*Inside the cave one day later*

Naruto was sitting on top of a rock he was currently bored out of his mind and trying to think of anything that could rid him of his problem.

at one point in time he decided he would attempt to search through Ryo's backpack after he did that he triggered a seal that knocked him unconscious; after he woke up he knew he should have listened to his instincts that were screaming at him not to do it.

After he waited for twenty more minutes he finally lost it, he yelled at the top of his lungs

"Ugh where is she, she said she would be out for a little bit, not several hours, and who knows how long I was unconscious!" He began pacing back and forth in the cave out of boredom until he got an idea

"I know I'll just look outside and learn a bit of the layout of the land, if I recognize where I am I'll just leave early." He exclaimed as he began running towards the cave exit. When Naruto made it outside he began to slowly walk along the forest floor.

The serenity of the forest that surrounded him was starting to make his mind wander he started focusing less on his surroundings and more on his thoughts.

Moments later he suddenly gave out a deep growl of frustration.

"Gah, it would have been more helpful if I was at least found by someone who actually knew me!"

After several minutes of Naruto's was brought out of his own thoughts when several masked ninjas jumped down from the trees before he knew it he was boxed in as they cornered him behind a tree; one of the ninjas stepped forward.

"You there, boy have you seen this woman." He said as he was pulling a picture out, at first Naruto didn't recognize it but a few moments later he recognized it as a younger version of Ryo.

Naruto was getting a bad feeling, these unknown ninjas were giving off bad vibes, he took another quick look at the picture before he vigorously shook his head no.

The ninja was staring blankly at him for several seconds.

"then who are traveling with, you could not have survived this long on your own with the injuries you have." He questioned, which was more a demand than a request.

Naruto didn't know what to say he felt cornered at that very moment, he was sweating slightly as he tried to slip past them. But the other two ninjas blocked his path.

The ninja who Naruto tried to turn away from said,

"you want to know what I think boy?" Naruto shook his head no  
"no I don't I just want to get on with my day." Naruto replied as he started to get more scared of where this was going.

"I think you know exactly who this woman is, but you are trying to cover for her." The man said, as he walked up to Naruto and picked him up by the back of his head.

"Maybe we should interrogate him if he was paid to keep her location secret we can extract the answers we need from him; what do you two think?" While this was going on Naruto was panicking on the inside he knew he did not have the skill to fight off these people off, he could recognize an Anbu agent when he saw one.

The only thing he thought he could do was stall them and hope that Ryo would rescue him. In a split-second decision, he kicked the ninja who was holding his hair in the groin and slipped past him while he was in pain.

The other two ninjas were chasing after him, Naruto was panicking because they were closing in on him; they were moving faster than he was. While running he yelled

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" ten clones appeared in a puff of smoke they all started running towards the ninja, the one on the right said,

"Water Style Water Whip Jutsu" The ninja swung her arm in a wide arc and caused the whip to slash straight through all the clones within seconds, Naruto yelled

"Shadow Clone Jutsu." This time forty clones were summoned, Naruto was feeling a little drained after that one but became happy when he saw that they were having a more difficult time with forty clones.

His hope of shaking them off was cut short when the ninja who he had kicked appeared right in front of him, Naruto didn't have the time to react as he was instantly hit on the back of the head.

His eyes were barely open as he was losing consciousness, he was managing to hold on, but seconds later he felt a sharp pain to head before he blacked out.

*Location unknown, ten minutes after Ryougetsu left the cavern*

Ryougetsu was jumping from tree top to tree top, she was on high alert for anyone who could be her enemy. Her head was constantly jerking from one position to another at every small sound that seemed unnatural.

After an hour of moving she finally made it to a rundown shack, she walked up to the run-down door and held up her hand in the tiger seal, and waited a minute before she entered.

She walked into the back of the house where she looked at a chimney, she crouched down and reached her hand up into the chimney where she, went through a great deal of effort to pull a dusty and rust covered katana from its hiding place.

Ryo looked at the sword in her hand and smiled, as several memories flashed into her head. She walked over to a corner of the room and knelt, she stared at the floorboards carefully scanning them, when she found what she was looking for she pulled a kunai out of her pouch and proceeded to rip that section of the floor apart until she pulled out an Anbu mask, that had a red triangle starting from the bottom right of the mask up to where the lips of the wearer would be; the further up you trail the triangle marking the further it moves to the left.

Her face turned more serious, as she placed the mask on her face and started to leave the building. When she left she stuck her hand into the ram seal and left the area.

As she was jumping from tree to tree she noticed what seemed to be tracked on the forest floor.

She came to a complete stop and began looking at the surrounding terrain, she started walking towards the footprints while muttering to herself.

"Seems as safe as it's ever going to be."

After she took another minute to look around for anyone hiding she walked over to the tracks and inspected them, after she inspected them she thought

"These set of tracks are being used by a small group of ninjas, probably the Anbu who are after me looks like I found my prey." Ryo jumped into the tree line and followed the direction of where the footprints led.

After thirty minutes of searching, she found what she was looking for. Three Anbu were investigating the area for anything suspicious.

Ryougetsu's first inclination was to start killing them with a few well-thrown kunai and bombs but decided against it and wait for a second to see what they were after.

After about ten minutes of tailing the Anbu there had been barely any talk between them, finally, one of the Anbu spoke up,

"I wonder If that boy we captured actually has any useful information on the target." There was a silence between the three before another spoke up.

"If he does the boss will get it out of him, or completely destroy his mind in the process." Ryo was angered by this revelation, she decided enough was enough and slowly drew her katana, from her side.

She slowly made her way onto the ground level and moved closer to them, until she was a couple of feet away from one of them. She started to slowly go through the hand signs until she shot a large water bullet out of her mouth and killed the Anbu furthest away from her.

Both Anbu were shocked when their comrade was killed in the blink of the eye they both turned to face where the water bullet came from only for the one closest to Ryo to be decapitated. The last Anbu had her kunai out as she parried blow after blow from Ryo. The Anbu was in a bad spot and she knew it, her kunai didn't have enough range to effectively combat her target. She yelled,

"You damn traitor, eventually you're going to pay for your crimes against the country!" Ryo was silent as she simply stared at the woman for a second before she was reengaged in combat, she took a swipe at the woman's arm but she dodged, and tried to get in close to stab Ryo.

Ryo moved to the right and kicked the woman in her stomach and attempted to cut her head off. While the woman was straining from being kicked in the gut she did a roll to avoid the sword. She tried to lung at Ryo one last time, but her kunai met with the steel of the sword, under the pressure, of Ryo's sword the kunai finally snapped in half.

The sword had enough momentum to keep on going through until it reached the Anbu, there wasn't given enough time to avoid the strike. The Anbu took a direct onto her jawline, her jaw wasn't cut in half but she was slammed onto the ground as the bottom half of her mask was cleaved in half and her jaw was mangled heavily.

It didn't take long for her to bleed out. Ryougetsu did several hand seals, and the bodies and blood of the Anbu were pulled under the earth and left no trace of there being a battle in the area.

*Mist Anbu camp, unknown time*

When Naruto woke up he noticed he was in another campsite. His thoughts immediately went to the predicament he was in.

"Man, why am I always waking up in campsites under these conditions." Moments later he overheard two of the ninjas talking.

"Where is everybody they were supposed to meet us back here?"

"They were most likely killed, that bitch is extremely dangerous and crafty!" The other replied as he was walking closer to Naruto.

"Remind me again why we grabbed this kid?" Another voice was heard presumably the leader, he walked over to Naruto as well and looked at him while he was feigning unconsciousness,

"Listen, kid, I don't want to have to beat the information out of you but I will if it means catching a criminal like her." Naruto tried to ignore him for a second but his eyes shot open a second later as the man kicked him in the gut and yelled,

"I know you are awake now answer the question!"

Naruto looked up at him as he yelled

"I don't know who you are talking about, why do you want this woman so badly; what did she even do to have you people chasing after her?" The ninja looked at him

"This woman has probably given you a fake name, but don't be fooled she is a hardened shinobi and a traitor to her nation; she served as one of the top lieutenants in Zabuza Momochi's coup against the Fourth Mizukage!" Naruto was shocked, memories of Zabuza and Haku were filling Naruto's head as he looked a little disgruntled at the man's words.

to the Anbu, it seemed as if he was going to cave and give her up but Naruto gritted his teeth and yelled

"There is no way I am going to give her up to the likes of you." Naruto was about to say more but the man, kicked him in the gut again and yelled,

"Silence!" He turned around and walked over to a backpack that was on the ground, and started rummaging through it. He pulled a syringe out of the pack and walked over to Naruto, and crouched down; he looked him straight in the eye as he said,

"The liquids inside this syringe have extreme mind-altering effects, the person who I inject with this will start to feel their brain receive information at a heightened rate; what's two minutes for me will be years for you, combine this with a simple genjutsu and your torment will last for decades." He lifted the sleeve of Naruto's right arm as he stuck the syringe in and started to empty its contents. He stood up and said,

"From what I hear it's quite terrible few people are lucky enough to have gotten off with just permanent brain damage, let's see if you'll turn into a vegetable!"

The man grabbed Naruto's head and slammed the back of his head into the tree, Naruto grunted in pain as he closed his eyes but was forced to open them. His head slumped down as he fell unconscious.

He noticed that the ninja was gone even the forest he was in was nowhere to be seen, he noticed that he was in a dark room, the next thing he knew was that a voice was speaking to him from one of the walls.

"Last chance to give up Ryougetsu kid." Naruto stared at the wall that he heard the noise from.

"No way will I give her up my name is Naruto Uzumaki and I never go back on my word." The room he was in transformed in the blink of an eye, he was now standing in the middle of a hallway with two doors standing opposite of each other at the end of the hall.

Naruto was trying to decide if he wanted to go through either of the doors, but the hallways were getting smaller and smaller until finally he was being squeezed between both doors. Finally, in an attempt to get away from being crushed he opened one of the doors and was shoved through.

He blacked out.

*Naruto's mindscape*

Kurama had a smile on his face as he was watching the Anbu threaten Naruto with the syringe, and an idea came to mind.

"If he won't willingly release me, then I guess I'll just have restrain as much of my chakra from being sapped by this cursed seal and hope the damage take its course on his brain." Kurama started laughing.

*Inside the genjutsu*

When Naruto opened his eyes next he was laying down face forward in the middle of a street, it seemed like he was in a large town or city. It only took him a few seconds to recognize he was standing in the middle of Konoha.

Though something was off, it was too quiet and void of any life, he soon found himself walking down the street looking for any signs of life he could spot. He walked for what seemed like hours, finally, he decided he would shout to see if anybody was in the area. But before he did a woman walked out of a house, Naruto walked over to her and asked,

"Hey lady do, you know what happened to me, and where everybody is?" The lady looked at him and then her expressionless face turned into one of scorn. She suddenly yelled

"Why would I help you? Your nothing but a demon and a hindrance to this society. Honestly, I don't know why people allow their kids to keep pets like you."

She yelled out.

"Everyone it's one of the demons that have caused our suffering!" The woman's words hurt Naruto. He was in the process of backing away until he bumped into someone behind him. It was Sakura, he smiled at the sight of her, but was short lived when she quickly a kunai grew out of her hand and stabbed him in the shoulder.

Naruto winced in pain as he backed away from her and turned around to leave. He noticed that people all over the street began to leave their houses, many of them were carrying clubs or sharp objects.

All of them were directing hate filled stares of disgust at Naruto as many of them began to chant in coordination.

"kill the child, end his curse full existence." Suddenly Naruto was being pelted by rocks and called a demon.

They attempted to surround him but, he quickly escaped from them. As he was running from rooftop to rooftop he was glad that very few of them could get up on the roofs let alone chase after him. before he knew it, he bumped into Kakashi he crouched down and gave him an eye smile.

"Kakashi-sensei, am I glad to see you; everyone has gone insane hey are trying to kill me and call me things I'm not!" Naruto exclaimed as he was happy to see someone who wasn't outright attacking him.

Seconds later he heard the voices of the mob behind him, he turned around to face them, and seconds later there was a hand sticking out of his shoulder. He coughed up blood as he turned his head to look at Kakashi who had an evil glare in his eyes.

Kakashi ripped his hand out and kicked Naruto onto the ground where the mob finally surrounded him and began to slowly stab and beat him to death. Naruto was starting to cry at Sakura's and Kakashi's betrayal, Before he lost consciousness he kept repeating.

"It's just a genjutsu, it's just a genjutsu." Those were the last words Naruto told himself as he finally lost consciousness and bled out. When he woke up he was at the same spot of town where he had met the woman, but instead of a woman it was a little boy who screamed

"Help me it's that monster, somebody save me!" Naruto's eyes went wide, as he realized what was going to happen. Rather than waiting to be killed, he dashed off as fast as he could. His destination, the Hokage's tower.

As he was coming closer to the tower he saw several Jonin and Chunin who he recognized from somewhere. He saw that they were getting ready to attack and hand him to the crowds of civilians. They attempted to corner him, but he simply yelled.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" One hundred clones appeared out of the smoke and rushed at the Jonin and Chunin. Naruto could slip past them as he made it to the Hokage's tower he jumped on the first story roof and broke through the windows and saw that Tsunade was sitting in her chair.

He yelled.

"Tsunade, everyone's trying to kill me, you have to help me!" Tsunade let out a sigh as she stood up from her chair and walked over to Naruto. Naruto was worried she was going to kill him, but she only yelled.

"Shizune, get in here now!" When Shizune came bursting through the door her face was filled with surprise as she looked at Naruto. Tsunade snapped her fingers and said,

"I want you to take him down to Ibiki so he can work him over." Naruto looked at Tsunade in horror as her hand shot out and grabbed him by the throat and picked him up. He was struggling to break free from her grasp.

"When Ibiki is done making him suffer throw him to the citizens." Naruto tried to punch at Tsunade but she simply held him out of arms reach while she smirked.

Naruto looked at her in fear as he said,

"Why?" Tsunade gave him a quizzical stare.

"Why people fear you because of the blood that circulates your system, many people just like you have caused so much harm, that it's only natural your kind is feared and reviled."

Naruto had begun to lose count of how many times he went through events like this but was always different on who tortured or mutilated him. Finally, Naruto was pulled out of the genjutsu by the same Anbu who put him under it.

His body wouldn't stop shaking, he felt as though his body was on fire, his gaze was constantly shooting from one end of the camp to the other in fear of being brutally killed. The man was standing above him smirking.

"Had enough?" he taunted.

"Well then tell me where Ryougetsu is and I will make the torment stop." He demanded

Naruto was panting and breathing heavily he looked up at his captor and spit in his face yelling

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki and if you think that's all it takes to give up a friend then you're going to have to do better than that." The man looked down at Naruto and sighed,

"I was hoping you would say that if you thought those twenty minutes were hell wait till you experience an hour or two." He didn't hesitate to stick Naruto under the same genjutsu as before.

*Naruto's mindscape*

Kurama was clearly happy, as he had a great deal to smile about; he thought up a good plan to escape and get vengeance against Konoha and the Fourth Hokage as well as being able to see the container that locks him away suffer.

"Let's up the risk shall we, let's see what memories I can replace."

"He'll either have a mental break down and be too weak to protect himself from possessing him, or in a fit of rage he'll access to much of my chakra!" Kurama began laughing maniacally as Naruto was stuck back under the genjutsu.

*One hour thirty minutes later, Mist Anbu campsite*

The Anbu was walking over to Naruto, he was just about to release Naruto from the genjutsu, but was instantly sent on high alert when one of his subordinates fell from a tree.

The leader went over to investigate the man while the other two Anbu were watching the surrounding area. The first thing the Anbu noticed was that there was a deep stab wound on his back, he checked for a pulse.

After he felt nothing he stood up and looked around for a second before he pulled a sword out.

"We need to find her and kill her quickly before this draws out too much longer I suspect everyone else is dead." He took another quick look around before yelling,

"Give yourself up, we gained enough information about you that we know you've grown soft; apparently the death of a child scares you of all people now a day's."

"But don't worry, we haven't killed him yet, we're putting him through the Infinite Nightmare genjutsu." Ryougetsu was abhorred, as she was staring at the man from her hiding spot.

"I have to get Naruto out of that accursed Jutsu before he goes through it too long, I can't set him free from the genjutsu; but I can protect him from being used as a hostage." She pulled out several tags that had the kanji for barrier written on it. Ryougetsu pulled back until she couldn't hear them, she grabbed a small scroll out from the top pocket of her flak jacket.

She opened it up and bit her thumb and wiped it across the marking which said water, a large barrel of water was summoned from the scroll, she stood up and summoned several water clones, and handed each of them a tag and took out one for herself.

She rolled the scroll up and put it away as she and her water clones all made their way back to the Anbu camp. She got back into position, when she arrived she got to hear the end of what she could tell was a long series of taunt's, threats, and monologuing. The Anbu yelled,

"and here we thought we would have to torture him to find you, but who would have guessed you would come to us and attempt a rescue." Ryougetsu looked at the man with disgust as she readied herself to strike, suddenly four Ryougetsu's rushed to surround the tree that Naruto was tied to. One of the Anbu rushed towards the clones to dispel them, while the other two stood back to watch for a trap.

Ryougetsu jumped down from the tree she was hiding in to cut the Anbu moving forward, but she was grabbed with a water whip and pulled back into a knife.

The Anbu that was closing in on the clones was just about to kill one and render the barrier useless. His kunai was about to stab the clone, but his leg was grabbed from underground and he was pulled all the way underground.

All the clones stuck down the tags and put their hands into the tiger seal and the barrier activated. When the barrier became active Ryougetsu jumped out from the ground and said,

"Leave now, or suffer the same fate as every other Anbu you've sent me." As she was looking at the last two Mist Anbu still alive.

One of them gave a snort.

"You must really be underestimating our abilities if you think you can defeat the both of us." Ryougetsu looked at the Anbu with an annoyed face

"It's your funeral then." She quickly jumped into the tree line and started heading for the cave. She gave a quick glance at Naruto as she was leaving.

"I am sorry Naruto freeing you from the genjutsu, will have to wait for now." She looked back at the two chasing her and pulled out shuriken from a pouch on her left hip.

The Anbu leader looked at her fleeting figure and then at Naruto, he knew what she was doing but gave a growl of frustration as he yelled.

"After her, we can't have her escaping again, we can come back for the boy later!" The two leaped after her. Ryougetsu jumped onto a branch and narrowly avoided several shurikens that hit the tree trunk right where her chest would've been.

Ryougetsu would throw a few shuriken or try to lead them into an explosive tag. The chase continued like this for a while. The chase finally ended when Ryougetsu entered the cave, both Anbu came to a stop, as they stared at the entrance.

After a moment of assessing the situation, the squad leader gave the signal for them both to enter. When they did they saw, her fleeting figure go down one of the passages in the cavern.

They carefully crept their way to the same archway Ryo did before entering down the passageway. They traveled for several minutes before they came into a large domed cavern, there were a lot of natural streams running through it.

They both took a moment to check for any traps surrounding the entrance when they couldn't spot any they carefully entered, they both knew they were being watched, as the room was becoming thicker with fog until they both couldn't see.

There was a deep silence to the room, both sides were making as little sound as possible. Ryougetsu was slowly making her way to one of the small ravines she had remembered seeing before the mist came up. When she made it there, she started to form water clones, when five were formed they all nodded simultaneously. Ryougetsu handed one of the two clones ten paper bombs, both clones ran into the mist, seconds later one of the clones began making as much noise as she could.

The two Anbu made their way to where they heard the noise and saw that Ryougetsu was looking around in the mist, they decided to kill her stealthily in case it was a clone, but as they were nearing closer one of them kicked a small pebble. They both swallowed a lump in the back of their throat, as Ryougetsu turned and looked there way. Seconds later she was on top of them trying to cut them down with her sword.

But one of them blocked the sword and the other cut her in half, her body exploded into water as she died and revealed to be a clone. A millisecond later they turned around to see another Ryougetsu rushing towards them; she attempted to slash the leaders head off, but both the Anbu jumped out of the way and threw a shuriken into her chest. That Ryougetsu exploded into water, just as the two were landing on the ground two more Ryougetsu clones flanked behind them and attempted to slash their kidneys.

They both turned their heads in time to see the attack the captain dodged, her sword swing and cut her stomach killing that clone, the other one blocked her sword with his kunai, which turned out to be a mistake. Just as he blocked her sword another clone came out from behind them, the captain was about to kill the clone but cursed when he noticed the paper bombs attached all along the clone's chest, he jumped out of the way and avoided the blast altogether his subordinate wasn't so lucky. He was hit with the concussive force of the blast and was sent flying.

While midair the Anbu's waist was grabbed with a water whip and was ripped into the mist, the last thing the remaining Anbu heard was the sounds of metal hitting the ground.

There was an ominous silence as the mist started to disappear, as one Ryougetsu started walking towards the remaining Anbu, there was a smirk on her face as she slowly walked towards him, a large blood splatter going across her face.

The Anbu yelled

"Don't think you will be able to get me the same way." Ryougetsu simply smiled at him and said,

"I know that I just didn't want to have to face two Anbu at once." There was a silence between the two, as they both mentally readied themselves. Ryougetsu was the first one to make a move as she yelled.

"Water style water shotgun Jutsu." Several large balls of water were shot out of Ryougetsu's mouth, most of them would have hit the Anbu had he been standing still, he countered by using.

"Water style crashing waves." The small ravines around the cave started to flow faster and faster until they soon became large waves of waters that kept trying to pull Ryougetsu under the surface.

She rushed towards him and tried to cut his head off, but he blocked with his kunai, he was about to slash at her but they were both forced to jump away as another large wave tried to crash into the two.

Ryougetsu smirked as she said,

"Doesn't seem like you have that much control of your own Jutsu." The Anbu gritted his teeth, as he yelled,

"Water style water drag." His attempt at a Jutsu was cut short as he was forced to engage her in close quarters combat.

He managed to bypass her defenses and attempted to cut her stomach open. Her stomach only exploded into the water as she smiled.

"That's my bloodline remember?" She finished her taunt off by holding onto his kunai hand, she attempted to cut his arm off but his other arm pulled a kunai out and his hand became charged with lightning he attempted to stab her in the head but she released him and jumped back but not before yelling,

"Earth style, Crashing Boulders!" Rocks and pebbles strewn throughout the cavern began to launch themselves at the Anbu forcing him to dodge half the debris flying at him.

The Anbu was dodging all the rocks excellently, but he took one wrong step and his foot became trapped in a snare, a strong force yanked on his leg and he was hanging upside down at the top of the cave.

The Anbu noticed that kunai and shuriken were flying towards him, in a split-second response he cut the rope attached to his leg and fell onto his feet, just to block a swing from Ryougetsu's sword.

She attempted to kick him in the stomach but he brought his leg up and blocked her kick and slashed at her throat, but she grabbed ahold of his hand she attempted to bring a one-handed slash down on his shoulder but he grabbed her wrist just before the blade made contact.

They were at a standstill, Ryougetsu attempted to flip him over her, but the Anbu realized what she was about to do, as he was being thrown over her he lifted his foot and kicked her face, Ryougetsu was launched to the other side of the room.

She groaned for a second before she got out of her daze and stood back up, in her daze the Anbu had attempted to take the momentum of the battle and tried to cut her throat.

She ducked under the kunai and kicked him in the chest launching him back his back hit against a rock and shattered it. He groaned in pain but rolled out of the way when several shurikens almost hit him.

Ryougetsu was charging forward to deliver a stab to his heart but he threw a smoke bomb down, while the Anbu was using the smoke for cover Ryougetsu took the time to create two water clones. One of them went over to a larger ravine and started melding with the water's surface.

Ryougetsu looking around for where the Anbu could have gone yelled,

"There is no point in hiding I will find you and kill you!" There was a moment of silence, as Ryougetsu waited for the Anbu to accept his fate, soon after she yelled,

"Earth Style, Great Shift." The landscape of the cave was starting to shift, segments of the earth would fall and rise at random until the cavern was nearly unrecognizable. The Anbu was forced out of hiding, he noticed that Ryougetsu was a little tired from the Jutsu, He jumped towards her; kunai in hand, he was just about to slice her skin but she jumped out of the way losing only a couple of strands of hair. She chuckled for a second,

"What's so funny?" He demanded, before blocking a slash from her kunai, she was being pushed back until her back was up against a wall when he slashed at her head. She rolled out of the way and kicked him in the side he held his ground and only skidded a couple of feet. But it was a couple feet to many as his feet landed over a small ravine where a water clone was lying in wait.

"Water style water prison Jutsu." The water clone yelled. The Anbu was completely caught off guard he only had time to yell.

"Shit!" When he was in the water prison, he only stared at the Ryougetsu who was slowly walking over to him.

"Why don't you just get this over with you damned traitor!" The Anbu demanded,

"Gladly." Was her only response, before she yelled.

"Earth Style Crimson Rack Jutsu." As she set her hand on the ground, suddenly two mounds of rock shot out from the ground, like a spear that stabbed into the mist Anbu's feet. He grunted from the pain, seconds later the water clone released the water prison. Not one second after, spikes shot out from his body; the spikes that were protruding from his body began to grow into a rack that held his limp corpse up.

*Mist Anbu's camp, one hour later*

Ryougetsu had finally made it into the camp where she saw Naruto still tied to the tree. She walked over to him and knelt, she said,

"Release!" Naruto's eyes shot open wearily and saw the worn out Ryougetsu kneeling next to him. His words were a bit stuttered, Ryougetsu pulled out a kunai and attempted to cut his bonds. At the sight of the kunai, Naruto started squirming around and trying to get away with it. Ryougetsu noticed this and quickly cut his hands loose and took no time to put the kunai away. She said,

"Are you okay kid?" Naruto only nodded his head in agreement, he said,

"I just need some rest, can we go back to the cave." Ryougetsu nodded and said,

"Hey, kid." Naruto turned around and looked at her.

"Before I help take you back to Konoha, there is a project I need your help with." Naruto only looked at her as he said,

"While I was under that genjutsu I realized that maybe I don't belong there, there are too many bad memories of that place." Ryougetsu looked at Naruto with a bit of sympathy before she said,

"Naruto whatever your thinking is probably wrong, despite my dislikes of the place whatever your thinking is from the Genjutsu you were placed under. Naruto looked at her and yelled.

"No, I won't go back there; everyone hated me, people trying to murder me was a common occurrence; I don't want to go back there." Ryougetsu nodded in agreement but she was thinking.

"Shit, this brain damage from the genjutsu is severe; it might be better if I keep him close to me until I can fix as much as I can." She looked at him and smiled,

"Well, all right, first thing in the morning we are going to leave the cave for our mission fair?" Naruto looked at her and asked,

"What's our mission?" Ryougetsu looked at Naruto for a moment before saying,

"I'll tell you about our mission on the road, for now just rest up and prepare for a long journey."

Naruto nodded in response, he said, "Where will our mission take us to first?" Ryougetsu looked at him with a smile and said,

"We are headed to the Land of Rivers first, along the way prepare for training, because I assume you will need some for our task." Ryougetsu started walking towards the cave with Naruto following behind.

When they made it to the cave Ryougetsu looked back at Naruto and said, "Grab only the essentials, after this, we will rest for a couple hours before heading out to the land of Rivers for training and work." Naruto nodded and went inside to grab what he could.


	4. The Lost's Eyes Opened

AN  
Sorry for the looong ass wait, laziness depression shit like, yall probably know how that goes. But great news I'm back I guess I think?

Ryougetsu was running through the forest her mind swimming in emotions and confusion as hunter-nin and Jonin alike chased after her. She could tell that they were not that far off her trail, as a volley of kunai, shuriken, and senbon were being thrown at her. She threw herself down to the ground narrowly avoiding the projectiles.

Rushing through the trees, she attempts to make it to one of the many docks in Water country to hopefully escape thinking to herself 'goddamnit I am far too old to deal with this shitty ass conspiracy, I so should have retired when I got the chance...'

As the ocean was starting to come into view a senbon was lodged into her shoulder a grunt of pain was followed; her vision began to blur as the poison began coursing through her veins.

Forcing herself to continue onwards she ran until she reached the jagged rocks and slippery soil of the cliff's edge knowing there was no time to extract the poison at this time and that slipping out unnoticed was not going to happen she let out a curse before throwing herself over the edge of the cliff.

The last thing she remembered was the wind whistling past her hair as she fell several stories until ice cold waters enveloped her.

The next thing she knew she was being tapped on the shoulder by her new traveling companion, blonde hair and worried blue eyes were what welcomed her as she opened her eyes trying to snap herself out of sleep deprivation. "Why didn't you let me do watch? You've been watching our campsites for three days straight, and you just passed out?"

'Maybe because I don't trust you just yet no matter how well-intentioned or naive you are for accepting this task of mine.' she thought as she ignored several other questions that were thrown at her.

"Kid what time is it, how long was I out, and why does it seem like we haven't moved at all?" she inquired, a look of embarrassment flashed over Naruto's face as he seemed to be trying to find a good excuse. "Well you've been out for one day, what time is it not sure and well I didn't think to move you as we are far from Konoha and this area doesn't look like people travel through here often so I thou..." Ryougetsu interrupted wanting to cut to the chase.

"Alright tell me the truth you're mouth says one thing but your face says another you're to easy to read, and you're far too inexperienced to try and deceive me with a half-assed lie..."

Naruto looked around nervously. Trying to find a way out of this moment. "Well, I just figured we could easily get lost in the forest..." Ryougetsu interjected again,

"Out with it, I don't want to spend to much time staying in this spot here, and I don't want to be told this on the road."

"I didn't exactly know how to read a map." knowing damn well he was a jinchuriki she already figured the reason out she inquired anyways. "Why is that?" Naruto let out a groan of exasperation.

"in the academy I had a teacher named Mizuki, after betraying the village it was found out he had been sabotaging all the academic curriculum and well he didn't exactly impart the best of knowledge onto me about... well anything so after I was told this Hokage-Jiji I just kind of went on without worrying about it." He said sheepishly earning a shocked look.

"What about your Jonin sensei would he not have trained you in such basic areas that you missed out on?" Naruto let out a huff.

"Well I assumed that would be the case but it was always hard to find him when we weren't meeting up or going on a mission, and he would always put it off till later, or train his precious Sasuke." he spat the last part out.

"Ohh boy I got a lot of work to do with this one." she let out an exasperated sigh. at her declaration, Naruto looked embarrassed.

*Several hours later*

"Alright we have spent as much time as I am willing to spend here we won't be able to test your knowledge of what I taught until we are in a safer area." She commanded as she started walking off. Scrambling to put the map away and his other belongings he rushed off after her.

"So tell me again why are we heading to river country if water country is in the opposite direction?" Naruto questioned, Ryougetsu glanced to the side before looking forward

"There is a man in water country who I trained, and he will be a useful ally in our coming conflicts in Kiri. Though truth be told he's not exactly all there," she muttered the last part to herself, but Naruto heard every word.

"what do you mean by that?" he questioned. "Ah, you heard me? Well, he doesn't exactly have his screws in all the right places." Naruto tilted his head not sure where she was going with this.

"Uhhhh do I have to shout it out? He's loco, crazy, or as I hear youngins like to say nowadays cray-cray."

"Then why do we need him if he's crazy?" She groaned.

"Do you always ask this many questions, but if you must know he is a powerful lightning user." figuring she was getting annoyed with the constant questioning he shut up and, they spent the next several hours in silence as they walked through the forest.

"Well from what I've seen of you are probably aren't all there either." He muttered to himself; her head snapped towards him;

"What was that?" She snapped, causing him to panic.

"nothing, nothing at all..." The next several moments were filled with her muttering under her breath and saying damned brat.

The silence was starting to wear down on Naruto's mood. "So what was Kiri like before the civil war?" she looked over at him before falling into deep thought.

"Well not much has changed I assume even with civil war, it's cold, wet, rains a lot and there's more than enough mist to conceal even the largest of animals." She stated; happily, it seemed as though something else popped into her head. "Much of the landscape is treacherous to navigate, and the plant life and animals are highly deadly and poisonous which adds another level of hostility to the environment." Naruto looked slightly put off by this,

"Sounds like the whole area is just one miserable death trap." She quirked her eyebrow at him,

"I admit water country isn't an easy place to live, but because of the harshness of the land many of the people who grow up around the countryside or near the many bogs and marshes are usually some of the toughest and strongest ninjas to grace my village, but it's still a beautiful land to behold it's... Home." She stated with open and evident pride, but the last part was said with a hint of sadness.

Wanting to find out more about the area he was about to ask more questions but they stepped past some underbrush and came across a small border town nestled in between River and Fire county. Losing his train of thought, he rushed towards the village before turning around. The evening sun was starting to set on the horizon,

"Hey, Ryougetsu how much longer till we reach our destination?" he yelled before turning back around and rushing before he could get an answer. As she caught up to him she first noticed that many of the buildings were run down and barely standing, there were apparent signs of an attack as there were many holes in the houses and there were small holes made from what seemed like projectiles and sword marks in the walls from a missed blow. Not to even mention there were scorch marks along some of the walls of the houses indicating a fire that started at the center and starting moving up. Either way, she didn't like the looks of the place and didn't want to involve herself and waste time on brigands.

She slowly ambled along always keeping an eye on her new charge, while walking along behind Naruto who had been talking to every villager who called out to him. Soon many of the eyes began landing on her some filled with hate, others fear, and small fractions of which looked at her with hope and pleading eyes.

Naruto, however, was oblivious to the stares being sent at his companion blinded by the cheerful dispositions of the merchants, calling him over for a good deal food products that were less than ideal quality and the ragged quality of these peoples clothes. After buying some of the only fresh looking produce for what he decided was a rip off even for food in Konoha, he ran up to Ryougetsu,

"Hey, have you noticed the state this place is it?" He questioned, Ryougetsu gave a simple nod,

"I have, and it's none of our business we should probably head on. After buying what supplies we can, that is worth anything..." She stated carelessly, and with little emotion, Naruto was kind was put off by her callousness, but before anything else could be said, a small child ran up to them and said: "Are you guys with the evil ninjas or did Isamu make it to the Konoha?" Naruto thought a white lie wouldn't hurt but as he was about to speak a tall elderly man ran as fast as he could to the boy picking him up and pulling him away before apologizing profusely.

"Please forgive my grandson for his actions great shinobi, please take mercy upon him," he said as he started to bow, but was immediately stopped by Ryougetsu,

"I don't want you to bow to me, and we're not with whatever ninja your thinking of we're just passing through." She stated calmy the man hearing this was overjoyed,

"Thank god, then while on your travels have you seen a young man about twenty with dark hair, green eyes, and a beige shirt and pants and a rice hat?" By this point, they had started to get a crowd as some seemed to draw closer to find out what was happening while others seemed to jump the gun and try to conceal weapons and prepare for a fight.

Ignoring them, for now, Ryougetsu shook her head,

"We haven't seen anyone like that as we used a different path to travel here." By this point, Naruto had snuck off to the small boy who approached them at first,

"Hey kid what's going on around here why did you think we were an evil ninja?" A look of anger flashed on the kid's face,

"a couple of weeks ago a group of ninja showed up here at first everything was fine as they had all just buried themselves in the tavern..." He paused momentarily trying to hold down the tears that were starting to well up in his eyes, Naruto patted his back and gave it a slight rub trying to urge him onwards.

"I don't know what set them off but all of a sudden they started burning houses down killing anyone who took up arms against them and kidnapped all of the women in the village, but I don't know why they would do that the adults won't ever tell me anything!" He paused once more this time tears starting to fall down his face.

"I don't know why but the faces everyone makes when the subject is brought up gives me the shivers." Naruto was visibly angry he ran up to Ryougetsu who by this point got into a light argument with one of the men who was openly waving a wooden cudgel around, only inflaming more people before more of them were starting to hold weapons. Ignoring them, he pushed past the mob of people and made his way to Ryougetsu at first she was ignoring him listening to the ramblings of the man with the club. But he shouted at the top of his lungs.

"We have to help them Ryougetsu did you hear what they did to this village, it wouldn't be right if we just left these people to their fate!" at the mention, of this a lot of the villagers without weapons in hand began pleading for us to save their daughters, wives, and mothers who were kidnapped by the rogue ninja.

Many of the men with weapons lowered them as people began asking for our help not wanting to commit to a fight without the whole village backing them.

Ryougetsu didn't like how fast they were starting to be drug into this mess; she grabbed hold of Naruto's wrist as an annoyed smile graced her lips she turned around before turning back to the crowd quickly.

"Hold on one moment I need to speak with my traveling companion real quick..." She stated with annoyance dragging Naruto with her until they were a good twenty feet away from them.

"What the hell!" She nearly shouted but drew her voice in.

"We can't be wasting time on every batch of poor souls who have had a taste of grim reality." She stated, anger evident in her voice, Naruto growled slightly,

"We can't let these people suffer at the hands of these bastards!" she groaned,

"Uhh, yes we can it's as simple as walking out and going our separate ways give me one good reason why we should help them..." Naruto paused in thought not sure how to answer, as Ryougetsu was about to start walking away,

"Last time I heard from you, you need me to help kill Yagura and save the people of mist from tyranny; so if you want my help you got to help these people!" He declared she let out a groan of annoyance.

"Real dirty kid, really dirty." While they were arguing they didn't notice that the villagers who were once watching them dispersed and moved back to the village center, not hearing the ruckus going on.

"No you may try to blackmail me into helping these people, but there is no reason, a people that dislike you for refusing to help are more likely to forget you than if you were to save them and become their bloody messiah!" she shouted, not backing down from her position. Seconds later a scream jolted them from their conversation, Naruto rushed in the direction causing Ryougetsu to hurry after him. Looking at the scene before them; five ninjas was destroying the market stands cutting into villagers; and beginning to round up more people.

Ryougetsu wanted to leave she was about to say her mind on the matter again when Naruto pulled out shuriken from his pouch, a mischevious look in his eyes as he looked up at her,

"Hey Ryougetsu, I can give you another reason why we should stay and help the village." Ryougetsu looked down at him, and before she could respond he threw the shuriken, towards one of the ninjas; lodging itself into his shoulder, Naruto looked shocked as he pointed at Ryougetsu yelling.

"She did it!" Ryougetsu looked down at Naruto, with a hint of anger,

"I don't think they'll fall for something as simple as that." Her words fell short though when one of the ninjas looked in her direction and pointed towards the two. She took a second to glance at his clothing in comparison to hers, the look of a janitor in contrast to the look of a battle-hardened ninja.

"Oh shit you little bastard... Alrighty, then you take the one on the left I'll take the four on the riiight..." Naruto had disappeared from her side "Sorry busy they're after you, not me, whoop, whoop, whoop."

"Oh come the bloody fuck on I'm so going to get revenge for this..."

What ensued was a bloody battle, the five of them tried encircling her, but failed when she targeted the wounded ninja by rushing towards him drawing her sword, from her sheath she attempted to cut him down.

Narrowly avoiding the strike he jumped away avoiding the slice as another tried to pull her off him by launching a rapid succession of fireballs in her direction causing her to roll out of the way.

Deciding it would be better to take the long-range fighter out first she changed course pulling a smoke bomb from her pouch she threw it down just in front of him.

Before throwing her katana from her hands hearing the groan of pain and the piercing of flesh, she quickly charged through the smoke ripping her blade out of his chest.

One of the men enraged by the death of his comrade came charging at her.

"You bitch, I'll have fun fucking your corpse." Ryougetsu while in the midst of dodging his strikes, quirked an eyebrow.

"Well, that isn't a very healthy habit." the man had lost control of himself as his knife swipes became wider and wider until she capitalized on his overextension she cut him down the left shoulder to the right kidney before kicking him back into one of the house walls.

"Alright whose next?" she said to herself looking at the three remaining targets after the first two were felled the other three were hanging further back trying to discern who she would come after next. Going through a rapid set of handseals,

"Hidden mist jutsu." she declared, before the mist fully set in she could see the slightly scared looks on their faces.

"Now, now it seems as though three chunin level ninja have decided to pick a fight with the wrong woman now, whose first and what vital point shall I strike first?"

"You bitch, you started this!" one of them yelled not thinking about hiding their presence in the mist.

the next second an audible blood-curdling scream was heard throughout the town.

"Wrong, move I think I'll let you off with a slow death... now for the other two." She eerily said as she tried to disappear back into the smoke.

But one of the men tried taking a swipe at her through the mist only for it to fail as she side-stepped to the right avoiding his strike completely. The next thing the man knew a sharp pain had pierced his gut before he collapsed to the ground letting out a small groan of pain.

"One more, weak chunin but I think I'll give you a better chance of survival, than fighting me; Naruto get out here and fight at least one of them or I'm destroying the last of your precious ramen." She declared loudly moments later she could hear Naruto trying to find his way through the mist.

"How do you expect me to fight with all this mist blocking my sight?" he demanded angrily, earning a chuckle from Ryougetsu.

"Well we're going to be fighting in Kiri soon enough, so it's better you learn to fight without your sight as it will become a detriment if that is the only sense you rely upon." She stated, "now your first task is beating this Chunin don't worry I'll help if it goes to bad, maybe." Ryougetsu said as she took a moment to lean against the rubble of a cart.

*Naruto's POV*

Naruto tried looking around for any signs of his opponent but couldn't see anything with the fog being so thick, he decided to listen for his opponent, but they were as silent as a mouse, he let out a groan of frustration. The next thing he knew two kunai was thrown at him out of nowhere causing him to dodge one but get hit by the other in the arm.

Letting out a grunt of pain he tried to grab the kunai to pull it out but he noticed the mist starting to bend and move as a figure came rushing through the fog.

Attempting to do a downward swing of his kunai, Naruto narrowly blocked the swipe by quickly pulling the kunai out of his arm and using it to block. There was an intense struggle as Naruto was slowly being overpowered, he took a step backward before tripping over what he assumed was a rock he rolled backwards, and the man followed he managed to get off a lucky kick that sent the man skidding back.

While he was fighting for his life, Ryougetsu had remained silent until now.

"If you wait until you can see visible signs of someone in the mist, it will be too late for you to react and you'll die, you must learn to use your other senses as much as you do your sight otherwise you will never beat the hidden mist Jutsu."

Naruto let out a growl of frustration.

He put his fingers up into a tiger seal, summoning a dozen shadow clones several of them ran into different directions while one stayed right next to him. He heard the explosion of smoke from one of his clones and slowly stalked towards the source of the sound trying his damnedest not to make any noises. The clone besides him tried to make a sound for a jutsu but was stabbed in the gut exploding into a cloud of smoke, Naruto stabbed the man in the side causing him to grunt in pain before backhanding Naruto on the face, Naruto jumped away as he barely made out a kunai attempting to cut his throat.

His heart started beating fast, and the adrenaline began to kick in; as the prospects of dying became all too real.

He lunged forward attempting to catch the man off guard while he tried to dislodge the kunai from his side, managing to get close enough to punch him. The man tried to jump back but one of the clones popped out of the smoke and grabbed him from behind, Naruto nailed the Chunin in the face causing him to fly backward landing on his back he let out a groan of pain before jumping back up and punching Naruto in the gut.

Out of breath momentarily the man swept his legs out from underneath him, before trying to stomp on his head but naruto rolled out of the way and delivered a powerful kick to the man's groin. He staggered for several moments which was enough time for the other clones to find their position.

The next thing the man heard and felt was several well placed kicks to his abdomen each launching him higher into the air.

"Naruto Uzumaki barrage!" He declared each sentence for every kick he delivered. The last thing the man remembered was a downward ax kick slamming him into the ground. A loud audible clap resounded through the town center as the mist began to dissipate. Ryougetsu was slowly walking towards Naruto who was crouching over the unconscious form of the ninja.

"Alright now finish the job..." She commanded, causing Naruto to look up at her in anger.

"Why didn't you help me and what do you mean? He's finished already!" He yelled furiously, angered that she nearly allowed him to die.

"I decerned that this guy was the weakest of the group and the least experienced; which is why he hesitated to attack me and tried to hide instead. But he's not finished until you slide your kunai through his throat." She stated callously, waiting for Naruto to complete the given task.

"No, I refuse he's already beaten we don't need to take this any further!" he growled at her his anger starting to rise, her expression lightened as she walked over to the limp body of the man; she gave it a light kick.

"Look I don't take pleasure in ordering you to kill your target, but you're not going to have the luxury of sparing every man woman and child who you come to blows with," she stated calmly trying to comfort him and convince him.

"This man was willingly serving with a group of men who are probably gang-raping the woman they kidnapped this is not a person you want to let go; he's more likely to come back here for revenge if you allow him to live." She growled, leaving no room for argument he turned away from the man;

"I'm not going to kill him there has to be another way." She looked at him incredulously;

"Fine you don't need to kill him but take your kunai and stab his leg..." She commanded; Naruto turned to face her shock on his face.

"What?" was his only response, as he glared at her for suggesting that.

"You wanted to stop and save this village now I'm trying to teach you how to do it," she started raising her voice audible enough for anyone else who might have been lurking around to listen in.

"we don't know where their base is and if we don't find where it is they will come down here and kill as many of them as they can before we can stop them; now stab his leg and wake him up..." Naruto was about to refuse, but she didn't give him the chance to talk.

"And don't you say no, if you're unwilling to kill a monster like this..." She paused for a moment and let out a chuckle.

"How ironic I call him the monster, but if you don't kill him then you'll at least help in his interrogation." She turned her head toward one of the villagers who was peaking their head out of a corner.

"You there!" The man let out a shriek after overhearing the conversation.

"Me?" He questioned already knowing and dreading her answer.

"Yes you, take me to your house we'll be using it for the night, we'll have him broken by day-break and if all goes well your family will be returned by the end of the week." Naruto looked a little sick at the idea of torturing someone knowing damn well what she meant by breaking him.

The feelings of his previous sessions both with the rouge-nin and the hunter-nin from Kiri were fresh on his mind.

"Why do I have to be involved in this though?" He questioned through gritted teeth not wanting to spare Ryou a glance.

"Because you forced my hand to help this village, and if you can't even stab the man's leg which is not even that brutal of an action all things considered you would hear him screaming from sunset to sunrise no matter what you do. Do what I say, and he won't suffer as much from you, then by my hands..." Naruto was shocked by her declaration, he wasn't sure what to do, but he held his kunai out above his leg, his hands started to quiver at the prospect of what he was about to do.

By this point, the crowd of villagers had started to come back to the square slowly.

Not a moment later he closed his eyes as his hands swung downwards he heard the piercing of flesh, and felt a splatter of blood hit his face; not a second later the man screamed in agony he tried punching the source of his pain.

His wrist was quickly grabbed by Ryougetsu who took no time snapping it forward causing a loud audible snap of the bone before he screamed in agony.

"Please, don't do this just let me go I promise to." His words were cut short as her fist slammed into his nose causing him to whimper in pain; his head slammed into the ground, and he seemed out of it.

"Ah quit your whining the fun hasn't started yet.

What villagers were gathering back in the center decided to walk away as the torture commenced; she walked over to his leg and picked him up by the ankle before dragging him towards the man who was looking away but waiting to lead her to his house.

She looked over at another of the villagers giving them a look that afforded no questions to be asked.

"Bring me a barrel of water, as many knives of varying shapes and sizes, sewing needles, pliers, and if you have a forge get me a hot iron on command." She commanded the mans face whitened but still had more color in comparison to naruto's that seemed to be deathly ill.

"come on kid your next lesson starts soon!" She declared, as she dragged the man by the foot, his head banging on the porch step, Naruto slowly walked behind her; before shutting the door with a loud click.


	5. Pain and Games!

Pain and Games!

Ryougetsu pulled out a tag from her bag; Naruto had a depressed look on his face;

"First lesson of interrogation!" She declared as she slapped the tag on the man's back causing an audible sound to resound through the building, and a slight groan to escape his lips.

"Slap restraints on the extremities and seals on the targets back to ensure the subject can't slip out or use chakra to escape with." She said as she pulled out a long piece of rope tying his legs together before hoisting him up into the air using one of the many rafters through the house.

She handed the rope to Naruto, before walking over to the man, and crouching down to head level; he was obviously out of it.

It looked like she was about to slap him out of it but stood up and turned around, and walked towards the door as she was about to open it the owner of the house had come back with a barrel of water he and another man were struggling to move in.

She grabbed it and lifted it onto her shoulder, "Thanks boys" She sarcastically stated, before walking back in and shutting the door.

"Don't forget the other things I need; your families lives count on it!" She exclaimed happily, causing them to rush off.

By the time she came back in with the bucket of water, Naruto had just finished tying the hands of the subject together "Alrighty lift him higher Naruto." She commanded, after having just been beaten he struggled to lift him higher for several moments.

"Why do I need to hold him up higher?" He questioned his voice barely above a whisper, she moved the barrel beneath his hanging body, and Naruto cursed under his breath.

"Oh, of course, that's why..."

She crouched down, so she was head level with him once more.

"Alright let the rope go dunk him." She ordered, Naruto hesitating for a second; until he remembered the tears streaming down the boy's face who had lost his mother; finally relenting as the determination to save the villages woman overpowered his morales, he released the rope enough for the ninja's body to come crashing into the barrel.

A loud splash echoed the house as well as some water splashing into his face.

The man began to struggle as he tried to contort his body trying to get out of the barrel and breath. But his efforts were stopped as Ryougetsu grabbed his body and forced it against one of the sides of the barrel.

After fifteen seconds of him violently thrashing about Naruto started to look a little concerned,

"If we're supposed to be getting information out of him wouldn't drowning defeat the purpose?" He questioned, some of his previous reservations starting to vanish and begin to be replaced with a feeling he had never before experienced.

"Meh he could be unconscious from drowning, and I could just prevent him from dying; so long as he doesn't actually drop dead it'll be fine..." She stated calmly as she stood up and walked away starting inspecting her fingernails.

"My mastery of water manipulation is enough that I can just pull the water from his body; as well as a few other neat tricks and treats I learned over time," She stated as she walked back to him, closing her hand except her index finger. She pointed up to the ceiling, waiting for a response.

"That means I want you to pull him up Naruto." She quickly stated after noticing he didn't get the meaning.

The man was unresponsive and unmoving seemingly drowned, but after a moment Ryougetsu placed her hand over his lungs, she moved her hands up from his lungs until they converged at his throat and eventually his head until a decent amount of water began floating out of his mouth and nose.

After the water was removed from his body, it was formed into a ball that she then threw at him with enough force to cause an audible slap to resound through the house.

The man let out a pain filled groan, as he was pulled from the clutches of death and awoken to his torturers.

"Ha, you..." Before he could continue any further, she quickly interjected.

"Dunk him." Doing as he was told he dropped the man back into the barrel he began thrashing once more.

Ryougetsu stepped away from the barrel and grabbed the robe from Naruto, before looking down at him with a stern look.

"Alright, it's your turn to dirty your hands..." Naruto looked shocked he didn't want to participate any more than he already had.

"It'll be fine I won't have you do any of the fun stuff once the rest of the equipment gets here, just ruff him up a bit." Naruto decided that with everything he's already done punching him a few times wouldn't be worse than nearly drowning him.

He walked over to the barrel; the subject had just barely started to lift his head out of the water when Naruto delivered, a powerful punch to his jaw causing him to fly back into the barrel.

"Oh do remember, try not to punch subjects in the jaw too much; we won't get anything out of them if their jaws are broken and they can't talk." Naruto nodded in understanding. He didn't know why but any reservations he had about interrogating this man disappeared, instead, that same unfamiliar feeling; deep inside himself began welling up it was intoxicating, to say the least, it slowly started consuming him.

"Hey, Ryougetsu could you pull him out?" She smiled, before giving a nod.

"Sure thing kid." She said, with a hint of pride that Naruto, was barely able to catch before pulling him out of the water.

While being raised out of the water; Naruto punched him in the ribcage, causing the subject, let out a wheeze of pain.

"Where did you friends take all the woman to?" He yelled not bothering to care if he spat on the subject; the subject let out a laugh that was supposed to display how tough he was.

"Hah? Is this the best you can do I felt worse while training!" He yelled, trying to sound confident.

"Ryougetsu dunked him back in the water not giving him the chance to feel confident over his words; it didn't take long for her to pull him back out.

"To make things clear, this is only the happy meal; I'm just trying to get this kid used to the idea of interrogation." He was about to let out a raucous laugh but was dunked again, before being raised out of it

"I come from Kiri; the real fun hasn't started yet, happy hour's an hour away." She sang in a sing voice creeping Naruto out and placing dread into the mind of the subject as to what's to begin.

"Deep breaths sweety." Was the only warning he had before being dropped back in the barrel of water.

"Alright, beat on his stomach and ribs; don't let him have an easy time holding his breath." Doing as instructed Naruto started to beat him causing, large bubbles to start surfacing from the barrel.

"Hey, Ryougetsu uhm, why exactly are you enjoying this so much; it's a little..." he asked, but stopped near the end not sure how to broach the subject.

"Psychotic?" She finished for him, he turned around and nodded not exactly wanting to finish for himself.

"Well if you must know Kiri trains ninja to be as sadistic as possible and I haven't had as much fun right now since I was released from Kiri's T&I, fun place." She breathed slightly and paused for a moment.

Taking this as her not wanting to talk anymore Naruto turned back to the subject at hand and began beating him; with every blow landed that feeling grew stronger and stronger until he couldn't help himself and a small sadistic smile graced his lips.

"Another truth to be told. It's because I really hate rapists and have bad memories involving them and let's leave it at that." She stated, just as the man stopped thrashing about seemingly unconscious from drowning again.

She motioned for Naruto to come forward and hold the rope; doing as she commanded he grabbed the cable, and she began to pull the water out of his body.

While doing so, she looked back at him,

"Alright you asked a question, and I honestly answered, now tell me why do you feel endangered by Konoha; I hear they aren't exactly the most brutal regime to deal with." Naruto let out a sigh as he wanted desperately not to talk about it, but decided if he gets to know about her past. Then he might as well extend his hand out in turn.

"Well Honestly If you've ever seen a lottery machine my head feels exactly like that." He paused not sure where to start or even end after that.

"I have memories that I remember happening where I was tortured all day and night like this guy, but other ones where I was ignored and ostracized and had a few small friends who liked and accepted me and..." Naruto was about to begin, but he let out a growl of frustration.

"It's just all just a mess I don't know which side of me to believe, but I'm not taking any chances dammit; not until I have things sorted out and even if I do come back they can't throw me in a cage!"

"Ahh, you're heads a mess I know how that goes..." Just as Naruto was about to reply but a knock resounded in the room interrupting his train of thought.

"Lady-Ninja, we have the tools you asked for." A man stated before the door was opened and several people walked in bringing dozens of knives, pliers, and sewing needles.

"Alright kid this is where your job ends, and mine begins; you can leave and walk around the village if you want." She stated, calmly as she walked over and grabbed the rope hoisting him higher into the air before tying it to a nearby floorboard that was sticking out.

"No, if it's alright with you I would like to see what you'll do to him?" He demanded but near the end devolved into a question.

She let out a sigh,

"Well I can tell you happy hour isn't going to be too happy for one of us in here and it won't be pleasant but if your sure go fetch me two tables," she stated as she moved the barrel out from underneath him.

Naruto came back with a coffee table and a butcher-block,

"Lucky me we got the butchers house." Ryougetsu smiled, she popped her knuckles and moved the butcher block underneath the subject.

"Alright move the coffee-table so our subject can have a full view of it; next place everything in the most menacing order you can think of kid." Next thing Naruto knew she was releasing the rope binding his hands together,

"Why do that wouldn't we need him bound so he can't fight back?" He questioned, Naruto didn't know why he was staying around to watch this; but knew he needed to make sacrifices to get stronger.

"Well if I was alone I would have just bound both of them separately, but since your here; I need you to hold both hands down with all your might." Before Naruto could question why she grabbed all of the sewing needles available and set them down on the butcher-block.

She stood up and walked around till she was facing the front of him.

She slapped him several times, waking him from his blacked-out sleep.

"Wakey, wakey pineapple pokey; time for happy hour!" She sang in a sing-song voice; a look of dread crossed the man's face as he could feel his hands-free but weighed down by someone.

Naruto looked at her like she was crazy,

"By the way kid have you had pineapples before? Probably not once we get to Kiri I'll try to find you some to nibble on." After saying her peace, she walked back around to his back where his hands were being held onto the table.

Picking up a needle, she gave one last look at Naruto,

"Alrighty, kid hold him down." She commanded as she jabbed the needle into his index finger until the only piece of metal sticking out was the head; He screamed in agony and tried to fight as hard as he could to escape.

Naruto felt bile starting to build up in his stomach, his previous feelings of sadistic glee lost in the sea of brutality.

"Alright buddy boy, first warning tell us where the women are being held." She commanded, but Naruto could hear the hidden warning in her tone.

"you bitch I'm not." Ryougetsu quickly jabbed a second needle into his middle finger, causing him to scream and shake in agony once more.

"Wrong, answer!" she yelled; before walking around and grabbing a jagged, old, and chipped looking knife; and proceeded to cut his pinky off. Causing blood-curdling screams that probably resounded through the whole village.

Naruto couldn't hold himself in check anymore he let the hands of the subject go and began to vomit the contents of his stomach onto the floor.

Ryougetsu was quick to grab his hands and hold them back down.

"Ohhh, Naruto now you left an even bigger mess for the butcher to clean dammit." The guy was at this point letting off some sobs that were being held back.

"You only have one thing to do; one thing you need to say, just give us their location." She commanded to the man after walking back around and setting the jagged bloody knife down.

"I can't; I won't if I tell you where they are they'll just kill me!" Ryougetsu let off a sad sigh as she walked back to the door.

"Your choice buddy." She opened the door only to find a man sitting on the porch with his hands held together in prayer.

"You there what are you doing?"

"I'm praying to the gods that you will be successful in getting the information you need. I'm also here waiting for you to ask for the hot rod you required." She smiled at him and patted him on the back.

"Goodman, fetch me the iron, and make sure it's hot." She commanded she took a moment to take a look at the sky that had already been darkened and lit up with starlight.

Indoors after the Ryougetsu had left, the man found his opportunity to bargain for his escape.

"Please kid you have to let me down, that woman is psychotic she's probably only using you!" Naruto didn't bother responding to him verbally; delivering a quick jab to his back.

"Come on please; I can tell you still have your humanity left, that woman is a monster if she is so willing to do this to a human; being and force a child to partake in it." Naruto was blinded by his anger at the hypocrisy of the subject's words; he took out his kunai and cut his other pinky off swiftly cutting the subject's sentence off as he started screaming in agony.

Naruto immediately dropped his kunai it clattered to the floor with an echo that never seemed to fade but was stuck on replay.

Shock and realization hit him; he looked back up at the subject knowing damn well he's a monster.

But he couldn't help shake a feeling of loss; he couldn't place his finger on it, he wasn't sure what but it felt as though a piece of him died just there.

Outside Ryougetsu heard the screams of agony and the clattering of a knife; but decided to stay outside and wait, moments later the man came back with a red hot iron

"Aha, beautiful hand it over." She quickly grabbed the iron from the man and walked back inside noticing the man clenching his hand and saw a second severed pinky on the ground.

She let out a long drawn whistle, before walking around to the man's front; the sight of her in front of him with a red hot iron made him stop clenching his hand as much as he looked at her with fear.

"Tell me where they're being held now!" She demanded as she placed the iron near his face causing him to let out a yell of pain at the blistering heat.

"ALRIGHT, alright!" He screamed, at first before it became a low whimper,

"Where are they Damnit!" Naruto yelled after he finally recovered from his shock.

"In the mountains to the north-west of here, is a series of cave systems, they all go on for miles, and miles it seems and only one of them is the right one." The hot iron was placed on the stomach, and he started shaking and screaming in agony.

Naruto looked at Ryougetsu in shock.

"Get to the point!" She demanded before taking it off; his breathing was shallow. She gave him a moment to breathe before he began speaking again.

"Okay, okay, the correct cave system is the one on the right." Ryougetsu looked at him skeptically before she inched the iron closer to his eye.

He started shaking and screaming trying to pull himself away.

"Okay, okay it's not in the right or the left; there's a small mountain pass three miles going right of the caves follow it and you should reach a cave that's deeply hidden in the mountains, but guards watch nearly every inch of the pass." He frantically spoke trying not to earn her wrath.

"Just please let me go..." He pleaded as tears started to stream down his face.

"I will because I finally believe you buddy; the look of resistance you once held has disappeared and replaced with a broken look," Ryougetsu said as she placed the hot iron down; Naruto hearing this looked at Ryougetsu determination in his eyes.

"Let's go hunt these monsters Ryougetsu." He said, Ryougetsu looked at his eyes and noticed the sleep deprivation.

"Sure thing you go and get some rest we'll leave first thing in the morning." He looked at her skeptically.

"And what will you do?" He questioned fearing her response.

"I'm just going to relieve some pent up aggression on this guy; besides there's probably still more he has yet to spill." Naruto didn't want to stick around for this and quickly left; the last things he heard before he found his way to the tavern for rest, was the begging and pleading of the subject before he went and the agonizing screams of the subject as he walked away.

Whatever he got himself into he wasn't sure...

It was early morning when Naruto had woken up, memories of yesterday began crashing into him like a freight train. He curled up into a ball thinking about what he had done, what he was forced to do and he hated it.

After a while, he convinced himself that everything done was for the benefit of these innocent people.

"Alright Naruto, snap out of it, I vaguely remember Iruka teaching about hard choices and sacrifices a Shinobi would have to make." He left off a small smile at the thought of Iruka and his home; before the other memories of torture and abuse at the hands of supposed friends clashed with the happy memories.

He let off a scowl before he knocked an unlit lamp off the bedside table causing it to break on the floor. His brooding was interrupted with the shattering of glass.

He got up and walked downstairs the tavern keep came into sight.

"Sorry, sir I kind of broke the lamp upstairs." He said sheepishly, not wanting to look him in the eye.

"It's alright, kid you had a rough night; just be sure to bring our friends and family home; give those monsters hell for each of us, and I'll call it even, eh?" Naruto didn't know why but he felt encouraged at his words, he felt as though he positively impacted these people, even if it was through less than savory methods.

He waved the man a goodbye as he left making his way down through the streets until he made it back at the butcher's house.

Hesitant to enter, not sure if he would find a bloody pulp that would make his stomach churn. He was about to come inside, but Ryougetsu beat him to the punch; as she exited the building before he could place his hand on the knob.

He was about to ask her, questions but he immediately noticed the blood stains that covered literally every inch of her body; he raised an eyebrow inquisitively

"What happened to him?" He didn't expect an answer because her face and demeanor were back to emotionless. She looked down at him and cracked a smile at him; almost too eerily similar to how Kakashi would.

"A few sour memories were brought near the end of the session and leave it at that, don't worry he's still alive..." She stated; taking a deep breath and exhaling before continuing.

"I left him hanging on a meat hook I found lying around; told the butcher that he and the rest of the villagers could do with him as they please after we return from our hunt." She took a seat on the porch, looking up at the sky, he could see the dark lines under her eyes; he wasn't sure whether she would just pass out again during their hunt.

"Look Naruto, I know you probably didn't enjoy much of what you did, and you more than likely blame me for forcing you through it." She focused her gaze on him, pausing momentarily as she gathered her thoughts and let out a deep breath.

"I only ordered you to interrogate him because I know that you come from Konoha and that you're training has probably never prepared you for something like this." She stood up as she began walking away from the village, Naruto following close behind.

"But just know that if you truly intend to help me free my homeland; the way you are currently is only going to end up getting you or me killed, or ending up like that man in there." Naruto wasn't sure what to say; he wasn't even sure he knew what she was trying to say he just knew he should try to listen for a hidden meaning in her words. She looked down at him, a look of pity and what he thought was sadness on her face.

"In this job of ours, in this cruel world we live in we will be forced to do many unspeakable things for the so-called greater good of the village, the people, or the country." The two traveled in silence for the next several minutes; it didn't take long for Naruto to see the edge of town and the mountain range off in the distance.

The silence seemed to drag on forever as they just walked in silence; until he couldn't take it anymore.

"Hey, what happened in that house, after I left?" He questioned not sure if he would get any answers.

"In our line of work, no matter whose colors you fly or whose symbols of loyalty you carry; set for yourself rules of what you will and won't do and follow them, even if you're ordered by someone you see as the pinnacle of authority." Naruto didn't know what she meant, but he took her last words to hear,

"My own rules huh?" He muttered, to himself as they walked along a beaten trail. Slowly the ground became less grassy and more-rocky as they headed into higher altitudes.

Contemplating what she meant by her words, he was broken from thought after she stopped; the mountain no longer a distant objective but something he could nearly touch.

"Before we enter into the cave of the beast I need to know, what skills and abilities do you have?" She questioned, Naruto thought about it honestly and was embarrassed with the arsenal he had.

"Honestly not much, I can summon toads, shadow clones, and use the Rasengan." Ryougetsu's movements stopped as her eyes widened in shock.

"Like the toads that Jiraiya of the legendary Sanin summons?" She nearly choked out, Naruto nodded in pride as he thought about how hard it was to learn and being pushed off a cliff.

"Yeah, that's the ones I learned it personally from Jiraiya after he took me under his wing for a little while." She looked at him as a look a panic crossed her face.

"What's your relation to him?" She demanded, Naruto wasn't sure he knew where this was going, but he didn't like the sound of it.

"Well he trained me how to summon the toads, and he said he was eventually going to take me on a three-year training trip." Ryougetsu looked like she was calming down as she began walking again.

"Alright I could hear the pride in your voice about being able to summon toads, and I hate to do this I really do, but I need you to cancel the toad summoning contract." Naruto visibly flinched and froze in his steps.

"What, why?" He demanded not sure if he was really hearing that he would have to give up one of his most significant accomplishments.

"The Toads, like most summons go by a hierarchical system of master and student; which means that they can reverse summon you at any point they want." Naruto wasn't sure why but he had a foreboding sense of dread as she spoke each word.

"Why does it matter if they can reverse summon me?" She slapped her head making a visible sound in the clearing before starting back on their journey.

"Jiraiya of the Sanin is a known affiliate of Konoha, he may not be an active ninja, but his loyalties are clear; it's only a matter of time before he has the toads reverse summon you back to him at the request of the Hokage." Naruto didn't like the turn this conversation had taken; he stopped walking at the prospects of losing his connection with the toads.

Images of Gamabunta, Gamakichi, and Gamatatsu all flashed before his eyes the battle Gamabunta helped him with and the company Gamakichi and Gamatatsu gave him when he had no one else.

Naruto began walking again only for Ryougetsu to follow him at this point.

"Are you sure there is no other way around this, I mean Jiraiya from my recollection was a lot better than everyone else in Konoha and understanding." He tried to reason, Ryougetsu turned and grabbed his shoulders.

"Look you can try if you really believe it's best, but I honestly doubt it, He will look at your story and will either take you back to Konoha or with him on his training Journey; either way you will end back up in Konoha." Naruto's eyes welled up in tears as he thought about dropping the toad contract. Ryougetsu let one of her arms off of his shoulder as she pulled him along the path towards the mountain.

"If it makes you feel better you can wait until after we take care of the mountain ninja." Naruto looked up at her an idea coming to mind as he looked up at her.

"Hey, would you mind if I summon one or two of the frogs, to journey along with me and help me out?" She let out a deep sigh of resignation.

"I would prefer not because I doubt they wouldn't hesitate to tell Jiraiya my face but go ahead I know what it's like to lose friends close to me." Naruto smiled as he paused and went through the necessary hand seals.

"Summoning Jutsu!" Two small frogs appeared out of the smoke; an orange one with a blue vest and red markings along its face and chest. As well as a red one, with blue markings, and a blue vest.

Gamakichi was the first to speak,

"Hey, boss, who's the woman?" He questioned at first sounding cheerful but a bit suspicious after seeing the blood covering her from head to toe.

"More importantly does she have any food on her?" Gamatatsu asked before both he and Gamakichi were picked up and placed on each of his shoulders.

"No she doesn't nor does it matter but come on let's have an adventure you two!" Naruto exclaimed trying to sound as happy as possible, this may be the last time he ever sees these two again.

Ending AN yes some of you may be thinking damn that's horrible couldn't we skip the torture-happy?

NOO we couldn't.

Most fanfictions that take a dark turn usually like to hold hands and sing koombayah and skip through the dark shit Naruto must go through to become a proper ninja. But no more!

Also, I guess losing the toads suck. So I'll look at how the hell to do a poll and see what you all would like to see him have, nothing that's used by a Sanin or has an active summoner though. But he probably won't get the summoning contract for some time.

If Naruto must suffer, we shall walk through the valley of shadow and death with him and experience it with him.


End file.
